


Down the Line

by lol-phan-af (lol_phan_af)



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gun Club, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Gun Club, Minor Violence, Multi, Nosebleed, blood mention, they don't actually use the guns they just work there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-08-29 19:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8502247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lol_phan_af/pseuds/lol-phan-af
Summary: The Down the Line gun club is one of the biggest in the country, and the revolutionary squad just so happen to work there. They all have problems that could be solved if they just Admit some things and love each other, but that's not the way things go because why would they?A gun club au that nobody asked for in which they're all really gay and mostly poly.





	1. Open Shoot - Day One

The Down the Line gun club is one of the biggest in their country. Owned by Martha and George Washington, it’s placed in the middle of an expansive field. One part, the top line, is on a hill and the second part is on the lower flat area below it, called the bottom line. The entire club is surrounded by woods, secluding it from everything else nearby.  
  
It’s the first day of the open shoot, which is the first shoot of the year, and it is the worst day for it. Dark gray clouds cover the sky and rain is set to fall any time now. A storm is set to come later that night after the day is over, but Lafayette thinks that they’re going to get caught in the middle of it before they can get home.  
  
Lafayette drives down the road at eight in the morning, Hercules in the passenger seat, both fighting off sleep. It’s a Friday and they should really be at school but this seemed more important than doing review worksheets in bio and wishing they were home.  
  
Lafayette is tired, incredibly so, and they don’t really want to be here, but they work as much as they can so they signed up for today and can’t get out of it.

“I really hate missing school,” Hercules whines, eyeing the screen in Lafayette’s car that displays the time and date.  
  
“Then why do you?” Lafayette asks, turning down the road that leads to the gun club.  
  
“Because the gun club is more fun than school and I’m getting paid to be here.”  
  
They scoff. “I hate the gun club, I don’t understand how you don’t.”  
  
“It’s your fourth year here, you don’t get to hate it.”  
  
“I can hate it as much as I want when I’m still stuck working the trap while you got promoted to a golf cart driver who hands out candy,” Lafayette says.  
  
Lafayette didn’t hate being a trap boy, but they didn’t love it either.  
  
Being a trap boy meant that Lafayette had to crawl into a cement box, partially built underground, and refill the machine that throws out clay targets. Once they were in there, however, they had to stay in there until every shooter that would be on the line at that time, usually five, had shot twenty-five times, which usually took about twenty minutes. They usually spend that time snapchatting John, but he was at school so they were out of luck.  
  
“I earned that golf cart!” Hercules claims, hand placed on his heart.  
  
“You did not! You just got your driver’s license before us and there was nobody else to do it! They had no other choice but to put you on!” Lafayette claims, turning into the gun club parking lot on the bottom line.  
  
“You’re just jealous that everybody loves me.” Lafayette gasps, turning to Hercules.  
  
“Me? Jealous? I would never-” They slam down on the brakes, car dangerously close to hitting Maria, who is just riding in on her bike.  
  
Maria skids to a stop, the back wheel of her bike popping forward as she tries to balance herself. She whips around to look at whoever almost hit her, only to see Lafayette and Hercules, a feeble smile on their faces through the windshield.

“Hey guys,” Maria greets as Lafayette drives up next to here and Hercules rolls his window down. Cars are driving around them now but they’re not moving.  
  
“I’m so sorry!” Lafayette practically yells, leaning over Hercules.  
  
“It’s fine!” Maria assures, peering further inside the car, “Where’s John?”  
  
“His dad wouldn’t let him skip school,” Hercules responds and Maria nods.  
  
Lafayette drives ahead of Maria so that they can park and she can chain her bike to the rack. Hercules and Lafayette unlock the trunk of the car, opening it and taking their bags out with their lunch and extra clothes in it. They meet again next to small building across from the pavilion that has a little restaurant inside along with the office where Martha and George are that they have to go to at the end of the day to clock out.  
  
“Who is that?” Hercules questions, gesturing to the boy sitting at one of the picnic tables they usually go to. He’s on his phone, scrolling through something with a large duffel bag at his feet.  
  
Lafayette recognizes him from their American history class, though they’d never paid much attention to him. They knew he had one of the highest grades in their class and that he was almost suspended once for getting into an argument with Jefferson, but other than that the boy was a mystery.  
  
Not recognizing him had been a mistake, because this boy is one of the most beautiful people Lafayette has ever seen.  
  
“Alex Hamilton, he’s in my history class. I think he’s the Washingtons’ son,” Lafayette tells them, eyes not straying from him.  
  
“Are you okay?”  
  
“He’s really cute,” Lafayette whispers. They still have to cross the street to get to the pavilion, but they’re floored.  
  
“I mean, I guess? I don’t really think he’s my type,” Hercules says, the tone of his voice stiff.  
  
“I think I’m in love.” Hercules laughs, nudging them on the arm.  
  
“Come on,” he says, his tone of voice odd. He continues walking with Maria across the street, Lafayette soon following.  
  
Alex looks up as they approach, shaking his hair out of his eyes.  
  
“Oh, did you want this table? I can move if you want,” he offers. Lafayette has to stop themselves from yelling no at the top of their lungs.  
  
“No, you’re fine,” they tell him at the lowest volume they can manage.  
  
“I know you from somewhere,” Alex says, eyes squinted at them.   
  
“We’re in the same history class,” Lafayette explains. Alex makes an ‘ohh’ sound and nods and Lafayette thinks that they might be in love.  
  
Lafayette sits down across from Alex, which is going to be inconvenient for whoever else sits at the table, but they don’t care. Hercules and Maria sit on either side of them, Maria setting down her bag of food she got from the McDonald’s ten minutes away. Hercules reaches around Lafayette to steal a piece of her hashbrown and she almost stabs him with her fork.  
  
Hercules eats what he managed to steal and asks, “So, Alex, you’re George and Martha’s son, right?”  
  
“Mhmm.”  
  
“Then why wouldn’t you get, like, an office job here that pays more?”  
  
“I was going to, but then I realized that I would spend all my time trying to change things here and my parents aren’t ready for that,” Alex responds, shrugging. Hercules laughs, and Alex just smiles back as bright as the sun that’s hidden behind the storm clouds overhead.  
  
Lafayette is so fucking in love with this kid and they barely even know him.  
  
Angelica shows up while they’re still talking to Alex, a cooler too large for just her slung on her shoulder.  
  
Angelica is, without a doubt, the best scorer they have on staff. She’s loud enough that the people wearing earplugs can hear her, but not loud enough that she sets off the voice activated target shooter. The shooters remember her, the other scorers remember her, the trap boys remember her. She’s universally loved by everyone there, even George and Martha favor her.  
  
She sets the cooler down on the table asking, “Are we ready for the first shoot of the year?”  
  
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Hercules responds.  
  
“Alex! I didn’t know you were working today,” Angelica says. Lafayette’s heart stops.

Angelica _knew_ Alex, and never told them a word about it. The cutest boy Lafayette has ever met and she failed to even mention his existence. Given she wouldn't know about Lafayette's attraction to Alex, as they hadn't until a few minutes ago, but the gesture would have been nice.   
  
“Martha and George think it will be good for me to start work on the first day because there are less people here,” Alex tells her.  
  
"Makes sense."  
  
More people filter in the longer they wait, but it’s not as much as there should be. Lafayette doesn’t care as much as they should though. Less people means that the first year workers are more likely to get put on the line and Lafayette would kill if Alex could be with them.  
  
Martha comes out with the scoring sheets and a box of pens, George following behind with a box of earplugs and another filled with blue pencils that the scorers use to tally in the rain. Martha sets down her boxes on the first empty table and stands at the head of it to speak.   
  
“Welcome to the first day of the open shoot! Now, it is raining and a little chilly, but hopefully we can get this over and done with before the storm is supposed to hit. It is going to be a long day with all three events but if nothing goes wrong we should be out of here by six o’clock,” Martha informs them, cheery despite the fact that she looks like she’s half asleep.  
  
“Hercules, what time is it?” Angelica asks.  
  
“Nine fifteen.”  
  
Angelica looks like she’s about to cry.  
  
The bank assignments were the first thing Lafayette understood their first year here. There were four shooting traps per bank, one girl for each trap, and two trap boys for each bank. There were twelve banks at the gun club, seven on the top line and five on the bottom one. At the very end of the bottom line were five practice traps that shooters could go to when they weren’t shooting to prepare for when they had to.  
  
Maria and Angelica were assigned to the same bank with two other scorers and Alex and Lafayette were assigned as their trap boys.  
  
“You’re on the line your first day!” Angelica says, smiling at Alex. Alex shakes his head at her.  
  
“I’m going to die here, Angelica.”  
  
“You’ll be fine! You have us!”  
  
“You’re gonna be scoring.”  
  
“Then you have Lafayette. Now let’s go.”  
  
Hercules leaves the table to go get his golf cart keys from Martha as Angelica pulls Alex off of the picnic table bench, dragging him toward the car. Lafayette follows her, Maria falling in behind them.  
  
It starts raining when they’re stuck behind a line of cars all trying to drive up the back road to the top line, a light drizzle falling across Angelica’s car windows. She sighs, hitting the steering wheel.  
  
“The storm is gonna hit soon and we’re going to have to work through it,” she remarks, throwing her head back on the headrest.  
  
The storm hits at eleven, the temperature dropping to the low 40’s and the wind picking up enough that the microphones the shooters need to speak into the activate the target shooter are getting knocked over. The rain is pouring down, soaking Lafayette to the skin. They’re curled in a ball, eyes closed hoping that this is over soon.   
  
There’s a wooden bench area for every trap for the shooters to sit in while they wait to shoot, but the trap boys are the people who use it most. They sit in there when they’re not in the trap, and while Lafayette is thankful that there’s a roof over their head they’re not comforted by the fact that rain is still soaking them because there are no walls to protect them.  
  
Alex is wearing a plastic rain poncho over his two jackets and he’s still shivering, looking at Lafayette apologetically. Lafayette shrugs, uncurling from the ball they were in and sitting up.  
  
“How do you plan to get in and out of the trap without tearing it?” They ask, nodding to the poncho.   
  
“I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it,” Alex responds, yelling over the volume of the rain.  
  
“I don’t think that’s the phrase.”  
  
“It is now,” he responds, grinning at Lafayette, who returns it.  
  
The storm ends two hours later, but the temperature doesn’t go up, leaving everyone in the shivering cold to suffer.  
  
Hercules comes shortly after with hot chocolate and Lafayette almost bursts into tears when they see him. They run over to him, grabbing a cup of it before Hercules can offer it and chugging the whole thing. Alex has crawled out of the trap now, a long tear in his plastic poncho causes it to wave rapidly as he walks toward them.  
  
“Alex! I have hot chocolate if you want it,” Hercules informs him, nodding at the cups sitting on the seat next to him. Alex smiles and takes a cup, downing it in one sip.  
  
“This is the best job,” Alex yells, drinking from it again.  
  
“Glad you think so.” Hercules puts the golf cart in drive, but Lafayette stops him before he can get away. Hercules sighs, looking up at Lafayette.  
  
“Please?” They ask, smiling at him as best they can as their cheeks are red from the rain hitting it.  
  
“Laf, I can’t-”  
  
“Please? I’ve been sitting here in the rain all day without a jacket and I'm going to die.”  
  
Hercules softens, handing another cup of hot chocolate to Lafayette.  
  
“Thank you!” They rejoice, kissing Hercules on the cheek. Hercules ducks his head down and speeds off.  
  
“Are you and Hercules dating?” Alex inquires as they walk back to the rain soaked bench box. Lafayette chokes.  
  
“No! No, we’re not dating. Me and Hercules are just friends. Just friends.” They sound upset when they say it, and, to be honest, they are, but Alex doesn't need to know that. Fortunately though, Alex doesn't comment on it, if he noticed it at all.   
  
After they both finish their hot chocolate, Lafayette goes into the trap and doesn’t come out when the the shooters stop as the scorer never goes to get them.  
  
Alex is sitting there alone in the bench box and Angelica walks over, counting a small stack of dollar bills in her hand.  
  
“You know they’re not allowed to tip us, right? It’s illegal.”  
  
Angelica smiles, tucking the money into her pocket, “What are they gonna do, fire me?”  
  
“They could.”  
  
“They’re your parents, you know they’d never.”  
  
Alex shrugs and they sit together until Angelica has to go back to scoring and Lafayette still isn’t out yet.  
  
Three hours pass before Lafayette comes out. By then the shoot is over and everyone is packing up and going home.  
  
They basically crawl out, nails digging into the rocky ground and heaving themselves above ground.   
  
“She never got me out of the trap!” Lafayette screams to Angelica as they walk over to Alex at the bench box.  
  
“She did give you a piece of gum as an apology though,” Angelica points out. Lafayette rolls their eyes, blowing a bubble and popping it.  
  
The three of them drove down to the line to clock out, Alex staying in the office with Martha and George.  
  
Lafayette climbs back in their car with Hercules, pulling out of the parking lot.  
  
“So, how was your day?” Hercules asks. Lafayette rolls their eyes but answers anyway.  
  
“I got fucked by a thunderstorm.”  
  
“In front of everybody, just out there in the open?  
  
“I will push you out of this car and leave you on the side of the road to fend for yourself.”  
  
“Right, sorry.”  
  
Hercules is silent and doesn’t ask any more questions, so Lafayette is silent and doesn’t answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SCREAMING IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND ANY PART OF MY EXPLANATION PLEASE TELL ME ILL EXPLAIN IT BEST I CAN ALSO LIKE COMMENT ANYWAY IF YA WANT TO VALIDATE ME


	2. Open Shoot - Day Two

Trees pass by in blurs of greens and browns as John watches out of Martha Manning’s car window. She’s humming along to a song playing on the radio and John wants to say something about it but he doesn’t have the energy.  
  
He’d been up until four in the morning last night, like a fucking idiot, texting Lafayette and Hercules about the shoot. John was in school both when the storm hit and when it ended, but according to Lafayette it was like living through hell on earth. John sent at least one hundred messages about how scared he was, delighted to receive reassuring text messages back from his friends who were probably lying about how easy this was going to go.  
  
“You excited?” Martha asks, breaking from her continuous humming. John groans.  
  
“I’m exhausted. Why don’t you drive me to work more often?”  
  
“Because I don’t work at the gun club? I’m not an idiot, like you, who took a job because the people who I have crushes on were working there.”  
  
“That’s not what I did!”  
  
“It completely is! Lafayette charmed you with all their romantic wit and you traded a job as a slide guard with me for unpacking the clay circles that people with guns shoot at.”    
  
“I would rather do that than be responsible for whether or not kids crash into each other on waterslides.”  
  
“Don’t be so sure,” she mutters, turning into the gun club.  
  
“Besides, you’ve never even met Lafayette. You don’t know how charming they actually are!”  
  
“I’m going to that Memorial Day party with you next week so I’ll know then,” she reminds him, stopping in front of the office to drop John off.  
  
“Between Herc and Laf, you’re going to die,” John says, reaching into the backseat to grab his bag.  
  
“I’m really gay? I highly doubt they’re going to change that.”  
  
“Yeah, but you can fall in love with them platonically really easily.”  
  
“Is that what you’re calling it now?” Martha asks, her one eyebrow raised. John gasped, opening the door.  
  
“Wait, do you need a ride tomorrow?” Martha calls after him as he gets out of the car.  
  
“No, Laf is gonna take me.”  
  
“You wish.”  
  
John slams the door shut, running across the street to the pavilion where Lafayette, Hercules, and another boy John didn’t know were sitting.  
  
“John!” Lafayette exclaims, grinning as he approaches. John goes weak at the knees.  
  
“Lafayette!” John says back, beaming.  
  
John loves this job even if his friends don’t. He likes the long days and the feeling of summer starting once his job does. He loves being with his friends and getting to spend time with them getting paid to do that. It’s an unpopular opinion, one he would never speak to its full extent. He knows nothing that bad would happen if he did tell them, but he doesn’t need the judgement.  
  
Lafayette introduces him to Alex, and John is in trouble. Alex is adorable and sweet and John already has two crushes he doesn’t need a third.  
  
Alex is smiling at him, all of his teeth showing, and John knows he’s blushing and he can’t blame it on the heat as it’s not there.  
  
“Aw, John is adorable, isn’t he?” Lafayette asks, poking John on the cheek.  
  
“Totally! He’s like an angel,” Alex agrees. John squints at him. Is Alex flirting with him?  
  
“I think Alex has a crush,” Hercules teases, nudging Alex and laughing as Alex rolls his eyes.  
  
Angelica, Peggy, Eliza, and Martha Wayles show up a few minutes after John sits down at the table next to Lafayette, trying to ignore how red his face still is.  
  
Peggy sits next to Alex, both of them falling into a quick whispered conversation. John doesn’t eavesdrop, but he does overhear Peggy saying something about Lafayette but before he can catch the rest of the sentence, their voices lower again out of John’s hearing range.  
  
Angelica has the cooler from last year, the zipper on it straining to stay closed. John wonders how much she’ll be able to fit in there before the zipper finally breaks and she can’t use it anymore. She’s had it since Eliza’s first year at the gun club when she traded her one person lunchbox for something that could accommodate them both. She sits across from Alex, watching him talk to Peggy.  
  
“The season has officially started,” she remarks, “and now that I have both of my sisters with me it’s going to be the best year ever!”  
  
“I don’t understand how you’re so optimistic about this! Dolley offered to take us shopping today and instead we have to do _this_ ,” Martha complains, standing next to Angelica.  
  
“You could’ve taken off.”  
  
“And missed seeing you in that tank top? Who do you think I am?”  
  
John has never seen Angelica this flustered before, or at all, but if he had to guess what it looks like, it’d be this.  
  
Her eyes are wide, face flushed red, her mouth opening in an attempt to say something back but nothing comes out. Her hands are fidgeting with each other on the table until she finally puts them at her sides. Beside her, Martha smirks.  
  
“You okay, Angelica?” Eliza questions from next to Lafayette, her hands tangled in the fur of her fluffy pink pig pillow pet.  
  
“I, uhh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” she decides, nodding.  
  
George and Martha parade out again with the boxes they usually carry, setting them down on the table. Martha assumes her position at the head of the table where she always stands, ready to start her speech.  
  
“Okay, kids! Today is the second day of the state shoot, and I am happy to see that we have a much bigger turnout than yesterday. Now, it’s not supposed to rain until tonight but as everyone who was here on Friday knows, the storm will come when it comes. Today is going to be a longer day, all three events, but we should be out of here before eight. Okay, so…”  
  
She starts calling out the bank assignments, but John stops listening. The trap boys are always called after the scorers, so it’s not necessary for him to focus yet.  
  
Eliza, Peggy, Angelica, and Martha are all assigned to the same bank with Lafayette and Jefferson as their trap boys. John didn’t even know Thomas was here, but as soon as his name was called out John spotted him, leaning against one of the pillars that held the pavilion up on the opposite side they were on.  
  
“I hate Thomas,” Lafayette whines, hand running through their hair.  
  
“Didn’t you almost make out with him once last year and James Madison’s Christmas party?” John questions even though he already knows the answer. That Christmas party had been a disaster, John still has the scar on his elbow from when he slipped in spilled eggnog and fell down James’ marble staircase.  
  
“It’s like you want me to kill you,” Lafayette remarks, glaring. John snorts, giggling as quietly as he can so he doesn’t interrupt Martha.  
  
“Hey guys,” Thomas greets, bag slung over his shoulder. Everyone, except Alex and John, regard him with varying levels of annoyance, which John doesn’t understand.  
  
Jefferson is a sad guy, always kind of has been, who only took this job to get away from his family and his hatred of them. John understands that and relates to that but he’s not sure if anyone else gets it.  
  
More names get called, but John’s isn’t one of them. Neither are Alex or Peggy’s.  
  
When it’s your third year working at the gun club, you’re not really supposed to be on practice, but John is assigned to it anyway with Alex and Peggy. He doesn’t really mind, Alex is sweet and Peggy is nice so he’s content.  
  
Before they go, Angelica grabs Peggy by the shoulders and says, “Being on practice is fine. You don’t have to talk to people that much, just take the tickets they give you, rip them in half, and turn the trap shooter on and off. I believe in you, you’re going to be great, and you’re going to slay this job.”  
  
“Angelica, I don’t-”  
  
“Also you’re my sister and I love you.”  
  
“I love you too?”  
  
Angelica hugs her before giving her her lunch and sending her off with Alex and John. She’s bright red by the time she reaches them but they don’t talk about it.  
  
“Hey,” Hercules says, stopping the three of them. “I’m not allowed down on practice anymore so I won’t be able to see you guys today.”  
  
“Oh, that’s fine. I mean, it’s sad, but it’s fine,” Alex replies. Hercules nods, watching them as they leave.  
  
John leads the five minute walk down the road to the practice traps, listening to Peggy and Alex talk about the training they had to go to earlier that month to prepare for this job. He doesn’t participate in their conversation, but he enjoys hearing it.  
  
They arrive at practice, standing on the small wooden landing outside of the small building they had to sign in at. Some other people are already there, but John doesn't recognize any of them.  
  
Adams steps out of the metal door onto the landing, clipboard in his hands.  
  
“Most of you know how this goes. Write your name down on the paper, and if you have any _friends_ , put both of your names in parentheses. Everyone got it?” He doesn’t wait for a response before he shoves the clipboard at John, handing him a pen and going back inside.  
  
“You should put all of our names in parentheses,” Peggy suggests, smiling when he draws the parentheses big enough to fit the three of them. She takes the clipboard from him and writes her name down, Alex doing the same.  
  
The three of them spend the time waiting for shooters to show up sitting at a picnic table under an outdoor tent playing cards, trying to ignore the bitter cold freezing them all to the core. Alex has another sweatshirt pulled over his first one and Peggy put on a sweater, but John has nothing to protect him from this. Lafayette told him this morning that today was supposed to be warmer, but John should’ve checked anyway.  
  
Lee comes over shortly after they finish their first hand of cards, assigning them all their lunch breaks. One thing John loved about practice was that he got a lunch break, a luxury not provided when he’s on the line.  
  
“You’re all on at eleven, probably because Adams wants you all gone at once.”  
  
“What have they ever done to you?” John asks him.  
  
“Hated by association,” Lee sneers. Dick.  
  
“Has your nose healed from when I decked you last summer?”  
  
“You punch like a bitch, it didn’t even hurt.” If John could, he would lunge at him.  
  
“I broke your nose and you cried for three hours.”  
  
Lee storms off with a roll of his eyes, and John knows he got to him.  
  
‘I’m guessing you guys aren’t friends,” Peggy says, gathering her cards as Alex deals them out.   
  
“I hate him.”  
  
“I noticed.”  
  
Their lunch break couldn’t come fast enough, John craving the warmth of the little restaurant they plan to walk to. They get up from the table, ready to start the walk back when Hercules speeds down the road and skids to a stop in front of them.  
  
“Hercules, you’re not supposed to be here! Do you know what Adams will do if he sees you here? He will kill you! Literally kill you!” John whisper screams, running over to Hercules.  
  
“I know, I know, but I had to give you this,” Hercules whispers back, taking off his jacket and handing it to John.  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because Lafayette told me that they said it would be warmer today and for some reason you believed them,” he explained. John blushes, sliding into the jacket. It reaches down to his mid thigh, the sleeves covering his hands completely. John could live in this.  
  
“What the hell, Mulligan?” Lee yells as he runs towards them. Hercules is faster, though, and drives off before Lee can reach him. Lee screams before he notices John, looks him up and down.  
  
“Really?” He asks, eyebrows raised.  
  
“We’re just friends, Charles.”  
  
“Yeah, sure you are. Also, don’t call me that again if you want to keep your ribcage inside of your body.” He walks away, retreating back to Adams and slamming the door of the building closed behind him.  
  
Their walk is spent in silence, John basking in the warmth of Hercules’ sweatshirt. Inside the restaurant, Alex and John both order cheeseburgers while Peggy gets a sundae and offers no explanation as to why she would ever do that in 30 degree weather.  
  
The first event ends as they get back. Shooters start pouring in, all of them trying to get in a few practice shots before they have to go for the second event. Peggy is stuck taking tickets from the shooters with no sign of her being let off any time soon. Alex goes into the trap to refill the carousel, leaving John alone at the table.  
  
**lafayette!!** : how is practice??  
  
**john <3** : good I guess??  
  
**lafayette!!** : okay ngl I texted you to ask about alex  
  
**john <3** : what abt him  
  
**lafayette!!** : is he like,,,,a good person,,,,,like do you get along with him??  
  
**john <3** : I guess? he’s really good at playing cards?? why do you want to know??   
  
**lafayette!!** : okay good bc he’s my future husband I swear on it  
  
The warmth of Hercules’ sweatshirt seems to leave him all at once, a shiver running down his spine, goosebumps covering his skin.  
  
**john <3** : did you Not just meet him yesterday??  
  
**lafayette!!** : I think he’s cute!!  
  
**lafayette!!** : and yesterday there was like Nobody here so he was on the line and I spent the whole day talking to him and I kind of developed a relatively Large crush on him and I just??  
  
**john <3** : I’m praying so hard  
  
**lafayette!!** : it’s appreciated  
  
“What’s wrong?” Peggy asks as she comes over. John notices that he’s crying, even though he really shouldn’t be. He has no reason to.  
  
“I’m fine.”  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“I don’t know. Crushes are weird, I guess.”  
  
“I get that.”  
  
“I’m sorry, what?”  
  
“I forgot to get Alex!” She yells instead of answering, sprinting over to the trap to get Alex out.  
  
The second event starts and the practice traps remain empty. Alex falls asleep halfway through it, only waking up when George makes the announcement that the first event is starting soon. He shoots up, startled, eyes darting back and forth like a scared animal. John puts his hand on his shoulder, the thick layers of cloth a warm contrast to John’s numb hands.  
  
“Alex, you’re okay,” John tells him. Alex smiles, sleepy and grateful, and goes back to sleep.  
  
The third event is the shortest, only lasting about an hour and a half, the day ending at six o’clock. Angelica drives down to the practice trap as they’re all signing out. Lee bursts out of the building before John can even remember that you’re not allowed to park down here.  
  
“Schuyler, what the fuck?” He screams, clipboard in hand, grabbing the attention of some shooters around them.  
  
“What do you want Lee?” Angelica yells, leaning out of her window. Lee doesn’t move, just beckons her to him. She looks ready to kill as she gets out of her car. Eliza is sitting in the passenger seat, scrolling through her phone, not at all paying attention to what’s going on.  
  
“We’ve been over this before when your dad tried to do it before you could drive,” he complains, “you can’t fucking park down here.” She gets even closer to him, close enough that their feet are almost touching.  
  
“What are you gonna do about it?”  
  
“I’ll tell Adams.”  
  
Angelica laughs, practically spits in his face. “He can’t do shit, and you know that.”  
  
John knows it’s not the time, but he really wants them to fight each other one day.  
  
“I’ll tell the Washingtons,” he says instead this time, but now Alex chimes in.  
  
“Actually, they only have that rule because there are no legitimate parking spaces down here. Other than that, they don’t really care.”  
  
Lee storms off again, huffing, face red with anger. John will never get tired of that sight.  
  
John and Alex walk back down to the office, Alex so he can stay in there, John so he can wait for Lafayette to come pick him up to go home. Alex says goodbye to him as they part ways, going into the office and letting the door close behind him.  
  
Lafayette comes to pick him up, letting John in the car while they get out with Hercules and Jefferson to clock out.  
  
“I fucking hate Jefferson. Today he stole a target, and it’s not like I care like it’s one target, but he fucking _dropped it_ and it shattered and cut my ankle,” they say as soon as they get in the car, glaring at John through the rearview mirror when he starts laughing.  
  
Hercules is laughing too, the fond look he uses only on Lafayette coloring his face. John loves observing that look, just wishes it wasn’t just Lafayette he reserves it for.  
  
“You poor thing,” Hercules whispers, choking back laughter.  
  
“I was bleeding! I could have died!” They claim, which only makes Hercules laugh harder.  
  
Their bickering continues, and John watches it happen, amused in every argument.  
  
They’re ridiculous, but they’re beautiful. John loves them, but they’ll never love him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these chapters are,,,,longer than I thought they'd be,,,,,


	3. Open Shoot - Day Three: Final

Alex sits at a table under the pavilion alone, trying to avoid making eye contact with the only other kid there while he waits for someone he knows to show up.   
  
It’s the last day of the first shoot, and while is grateful he won’t have to work again until June, he’s upset that he’ll have to leave the brilliant people he’s met over the weekend. He’s only known them one or two days, but it feels like he’s known them for much longer. He finds himself wanting to trust them, to have them trust him.   
  
Martha told him that he would make friends here. She explained that while the gun club was for shooters, it was also fun for the kids who worked there. It was a chance to meet new people and make friendships, to form relationships that would last. It all seemed like some tall tale she made up to get Alex to leave the house in the summer, but Alex has to admit that she may be right.   
  
Alex noticed Lafayette’s car rolling in, parking next to the Washingtons’. They get out with Hercules and John, all three getting their bags from their trunk before they walk over to the table.   
  
“Hi, Alex!” Lafayette beams, sitting down across from them. There’s something brighter about them today, maybe it was because the sun was out, maybe it had been there all along.   
  
“Hey,” Alex says as Hercules sits down next to him and Lafayette next to John.   
  
Lafayette sets down another bag along with their own, opening it and giving the food inside to John and Hercules. As they start eating, Hercules starts passing food to Alex wordlessly, which Alex thanks him for.   
  
“Did you not eat breakfast?” Hercules questions as he hands Alex half of a hash brown he didn’t want.   
  
Alex shakes his head before saying, “A lot of people don’t have breakfast, it’s not just me.”   
  
“It’s still important,” Lafayette speaks around an egg mcmuffin, foregoing etiquette just this once.   
  
“I’ll manage,” Alex responds, accept a piece of pancake from Hercules as it’s handed to him. Hercules stares at him as he eats it, looking down at his styrofoam tray and then back at him. He nods to himself and continues eating, handing Alex pieces of food periodically.   
  
The Schuyler sisters show up a few minutes later. Angelica slams the cooler down again and sits down on the other side of Alex, snatching a piece of sausage from John.   
  
“Where’s Martha?” Lafayette asks, done with their egg mcmuffin and moving on to their parfait.   
  
“Dolley,” Angelica tells them. Lafayette responds with a nod of their head and the exchange ends.   
  
Maria rides in on her bike, weaving through cars and empty parking spaces, chaining her bike to the rack and making her way over to the seven of them.  She sets down her stuff next to Peggy, taking her seat next to her. Peggy smiles at her, breathing out a hello, laughing when Maria does the same. The two look away from each other, blushing, and start conversations with other people. Alex, Angelica, and Eliza share knowing looks.   
  
“Attention, kids! Today is the last day of the open shoot, I would like to thank everyone who has been here all three days, or anyone who has worked at all over the weekend. We will be handing out lollipops later today as a thank you, so let’s get started so we can do that. Today is supposed to be shorter day, only two events, so we’ll probably get out at about one o’clock. It’s also supposed to be warmer today, which is great! Okay, so…”   
  
Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy are assigned to the same bank along with a girl named Elizabeth Sanders from another school. Alex is on the line with Lafayette as a trap boy, Thomas and John together a bank down with Maria and three other girls that Alex doesn’t know.   
  
“Are you going to the Schuylers’ Memorial Day party next week?” Lafayette asks back to Alex. He’s sitting in the backseat of their car, John in the passenger seat, the three of them driving up to the line.   
  
“Yeah, I’m actually really excited,” Alex lies. He’s dreading that party. He knows eight of the people going excluding himself, which is better than his previous number of three, but that still leaves about five people that are still complete strangers to him. Not to mention that it’s a pool party, and Alex isn’t, nor has he ever been, comfortable being half nude around other people.   
  
“You’re gonna get to meet Adrienne!” Lafayette exclaims, turning into a staff parking space. Alex has heard her name before, but he has no idea who she is.   
  
“Are we staff?” Alex asks.   
  
“We work here, don’t we?”   
  
“Right.”   
  
John leaves Alex and Lafayette when he gets to his bank, saying goodbye to them as they continue their walk to the next bank down.   
  
Despite Martha saying that it was supposed to be warmer today, the temperature remains below 60, which is enough to make Alex’s teeth chatter. He looks to Lafayette and sees them shaking, goosebumps breaking out across their skin.   
  
“Are you okay?”   
  
“Y-Yeah, I’m f-fine.” They rub at their arms furiously, seeking heat in the friction.   
  
“Didn’t you bring a jacket?”   
  
Lafayette lights up, pulling a sweatshirt out of their bag. Their face falls, eyes wide as they look at it, shaking their head. They mutter to themselves as they put it on, arms crossing over their chest.   
  
A girl comes over to their bank two hours into the first event and lets Angelica off her chair, scoring the next squad of shooters for her. Angelica grabs her bag from under the seat of her chair, sprinting in the direction of the bench box and ripping her phone out of the front pocket. She unlocks her phone as fast as she can, calling someone.   
  
“Martha? How is Dolley?”   
  
Alex doesn’t know Dolley but, like Adrienne, he’s heard about her. Peggy told him a lot about the people that were going to be at the party next Monday. He only knows that Dolley is really nice and that she goes out to parties a lot, that she stumbles into Angelica’s room sometimes early in the morning because her parents will kill her if they catch her coming home this late in the state she’s in.   
  
“Okay, great. I’ll probably come over after I’m done here so I’ll see you later, bye!” Angelica says after Martha answers her question. She sighs, collapsing on the bench next to Lafayette.   
  
“Someone’s crushing,” Lafayette chimes, shimmying their shoulders.   
  
“Look who’s talking,” she snaps back, shutting Lafayette up and causing a deep red blush to creep up their neck and cover their cheeks.   
  
Angelica spends the rest of her short break texting someone, presumably Dolley and/or Martha, and smiling at her phone screen.   
  
The girl relieving Angelica is done, forcing Angelica to put her phone back in her bag and go back to her chair.   
  
“Nice sweatshirt, by the way,” Angelica sneers. Lafayette chokes and sputters, shooting daggers at Angelica.   
  
“I’m going to refill the traps,” Lafayette mumbles in Alex’s direction before following Angelica. They whisper something at her, gasping when she laughs. Alex watches them, wonders what they’re talking about.   
  
The girl goes to the second chair where Peggy is now, letting her take her break. Peggy nods and rushes over to Alex, yelling a thank you to the girl before she sits down.   
  
“As much as I love this job, I hate this job,” Peggy remarks as she sits down.   
  
“What?”   
  
“I like scoring, it’s easy and I only need basic math skills, but I kind of hate the shooters. One guy told me that I shouldn’t yell so loud because I’m setting off the trap, and while I understand why that’s a problem, he didn’t have to yell at me.”   
  
“Just tell Angelica, she’ll kill him.”   
  
“Absolutely not! This is the only job around here that pays above minimum wage, I can’t lose it.”   
  
“It’s only like a quarter over.”   
  
“I’ll take it.”   
  
Alex talks to Peggy until she has to leave again, and he watches as Lafayette crawls out of Angelica’s bank and walks over to Peggy’s. He decides he should probably go in, passes Eliza as he makes his way to her chair, where the reliever girl now was.   
  
“I’m going in,” he says to her, walking away before he gets a response. He hates that part of the job, but he’s glad he gets to spend twenty minutes in the trap screaming over how embarrassing he is to himself.   
  
He goes out to Elizabeth Sanders’ trap next, gets out around lunch. By the time he gets to the bench box, Lafayette is already eating, and it’s then Alex realizes he forgot to take his lunch out from the fridge at his house. Shit.   
  
“Do you not eat lunch either?” Lafayette asks.   
  
“I do, it’s just I forgot it at my house.” Lafayette laughs, handing Alex half of their sandwich and forcing him to take it.   
  
After they eat Hercules comes down with a box of lollipops. Instead of the sprinting Lafayette had done on Friday, they walk slowly to him now, arms crossed tighter across their chest than they were before.   
  
“Hi, Hercules,” Lafayette mutters, not making eye contact with him.   
  
“Hi, Lafayette! I was gonna bring hot chocolate today in addition to the lollipops but we ran out of cocoa mix so this is the best I have.”   
  
“That’s fine.”   
  
“Hey, are you okay?” Hercules asks, voice trailing as he notices the sweatshirt. “Is that?”   
  
“No.”   
  
“It totally is!”   
  
“It isn’t!” Lafayette squeals, throwing their hands up, revealing the sweatshirt to Hercules, who gaps.   
  
“It is! It totally is! Oh my god, why do you still have that?”   
  
Lafayette’s face is completely red.   
  
“It’s comfortable! And, to be fair, I didn’t know this was what I packed this morning!”   
  
“I can’t believe you’re wearing my brother’s sweatshirt. You broke up with him almost a year ago!”   
  
“It was an accident!”   
  
“Yeah, sure it was. Here are your lollipops,” Hercules laughs, handing Lafayette two of the same color and Alex the same.   
  
“How many of these are we supposed to get?” Lafayette questions, fumbling with the two lollipops in their hand.   
  
“One.”   
  
“Oh. Then thank you,” Lafayette says, leaning over to kiss Hercules’ cheek.   
  
Hercules flushes and drives away. He’s almost gone when he gets stopped by another boy in a golf cart. He talks to him for a moment before he drives closer to them, stopping when he gets to them. Lafayette is an ever darker shade of red now, somehow still looking graceful while dying inside.   
  
“I like your sweatshirt,” Hugh remarks, ducking his head slightly, blush high on his cheeks.   
  
“You’re never getting it back,” Lafayette remarks, smiling. Hugh rolls his eyes and chuckles, driving away.   
  
“Hercules’ brother?”   
  
“Yes,” they choke out through clenched teeth.   
  
The second event ends and John comes sprinting over, almost running into the bench box.   
  
“Jefferson keeps eating chips and making the crunching sound over and over and he won’t stop and if he keeps doing it, I’m going to scalp him,” he pants, chest heaving.   
  
“I thought you liked Jefferson?”   
  
“I don’t hate him! Or I _didn’t_ hate him until he opened his mouth and started fucking shoveling chips in it.”   
  
“Please chill,” Alex tells him, but at this point it’s basically useless.   
  
“Is that Hercules’ sweatshirt?” Lafayette asks. John is about to answer before he sees Lafayette, his jaw dropping.   
  
“Is that Hugh’s?”   
  
“It was an accident! Aside from that, you look really cute,” Lafayette whispers, not looking at John. They unwrap one of their lollipops from Hercules and shove it in their mouth, preventing any conversation that could happen from happening. John stares at them, mouth still hanging open, mouth close to watering, when George announces that the second event is starting soon. John is shaken out of his reverie, barely managing to yell a goodbye before he runs back to his trap.   
  
“How many shooters are in the second event?” John asks as he gets back, chest burning.   
  
Thomas doesn’t answer, just continues listening to James talk to him on the phone. John is about to ask again when he’s interrupted.   
  
“We’re going to die if we don’t tell him soon, Thomas,” James tells him, ever monotonous. In the background he hears someone laughing. John perks up, he recognizes that laugh.  
  
“Adrienne?” John leans over Thomas, trying to see her.   
  
“Hi, John!” He hears her call, he voice distant over the background noise.   
  
James and Adrienne work at the amusement park fifteen minutes from the gun club. Martha works there as a slide guard, as does Eliza’s friend Theodosia and her friend Aaron.   
  
“Hi, Adrienne!” John responds before Thomas pushes him away.   
  
“Three squads!” Thomas tells him, finally answering his question. He hangs up the phone and shoves it back in his jeans pocket, grumbling something about having to refill the traps before the carousel gets too empty.   
  
The day ends at two o’clock and Lafayette picks him up to go down and clock out.   
  
“Jefferson has a secret,” John tells them all as he gets in. Lafayette is still wearing Hugh’s sweatshirt. Hercules isn’t looking at them. Alex is sitting in the backseat across from him, tense, hands folded.   
  
“What is it?” Lafayette asks, intrigued.   
  
“Okay so I don’t actually know, but he was talking to Madison about it before the second event started.” Lafayette snorts, driving down the back road to the office.   
  
The four of them go to clock out, Alex pulling a chair over to the table where George and Martha are and staying there. Martha smiles at them as they clock out, which isn’t unusual, but the way she’s staring at them while she is a bit odd. Alex notices it, face red, but remains silent.   
  
The three of them get back in the car, John already half asleep even though it’s still early afternoon, and drive home.   
  
It was cold and dreary and John was put on a bank with Jefferson for one day, but overall, it was a pretty good start to the season. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ha ha look at that


	4. Memorial Day Party

Alex has been to the Schuyler house twice before. The first time was shortly after he met Peggy at their gun club training, after Peggy forgot to grab a pen and Alex just happened to have one in his pocket, because of course he did. The second time was just for fun, they stayed inside all day with Angelica and Eliza and watched movies until Alex had to go home.  
  
Neither of those scenarios involved being shirtless in front of people he’s only known for ten days, nor did they involve swimsuits.  
  
Alex’s hands grip the steering wheel like he’s trying to strangle it, white knuckled, tense. His palms slip from how much he sweats, his sunglasses falling down the bridge of his nose for the same reason. His hair is pulled back messily, half falling out of the bun he put it in, sticking up and out and everywhere.  

The drive from his house to the Schuylers’ is only about two minutes, but he’s somehow stretched it into ten, and he really needs to go and face his fears, but he doesn’t want to.  
  
He turns up one road and down onto the highway. Their house is in the middle of their town, on the one road that cuts straight through it. It’s the biggest house standing, all gray stone outside with a pool in the back that Alex has seen through their crystal clear windows. Alex hates that pool, has had nightmares about that fucking aqua blue abyss.  
  
His hands are shaking, heart racing as he walks up to their front door and knocks. He fixes his hair while he’s waiting, the pain of how tight his hair is pulled back distracting him from the fear of everything he’s about to do.  
  
Peggy answers, to his relief, beaming at him like the sun. She has a sundress on over her bathing suit, the pastel yellow of it highlighting the happy glow that surrounds her. Alex smiles back at her, pushing down his fear and insecurity for just this moment.  
  
“Alex!” She says, pulling him into a hug.  
  
“Peggy!” He responds, hugging her back.  
  
“Come on, everyone’s already here!”  
  
She guides him through the house, up the stairs and through the kitchen to the deck. The pool is huge, like a small ocean in their backyard. It’s shallow at the front end, sloping steeply into deeper water until you can no longer see the bottom. A diving board is placed on that end, like a plank leading to a watery grave.  
  
Lafayette is the first person Alex sees, mostly due to the fact that their iridescent swim trunks are blinding him. They’re sitting on the edge of the pool with someone whose bathing suit matches theirs, Alex guesses Adrienne, whispering, faces barely an inch apart. Something in Alex’s chest stirs but he brushes it off as anxiety being so close to the pool and thinks nothing else of it.  
  
Hercules is floating on a raft on the opposite end of the pool, eyes closed, fingers skimming the water. His other hand is tapping a beat on his chest, head bobbing back and forth. He passes under Maria sitting on the diving board, who pokes him in the side with her foot and laughs when he flinches so hard that he falls off the raft.  
  
Eliza stands in the pool with another girl Alex doesn’t know, their arms touching, also whispering. They’re scanning around the pool, making sure nobody can hear them. At one point the girls leans in to say something in Eliza’s ear that makes Eliza giggle. She elbows the girl lightly and says something back, both of them laughing. Alex sees Adrienne sigh as she watches the two of them, but he keeps it to himself.  
  
“Hey, Alex,” Angelica says, standing at the grill. Martha W. and, presumably, Dolley are staring at her, but they’re having a conversation as if they’re not. John and someone else are on the opposite side facing away from Alex, laughing about something one of them said.  
  
“Hi, Angelica,” Alex greets back. Everyone seems to notice him after he speaks, all of them turning and waving at him, a chorus of hello’s ringing out.  
  
“Oh my god, Alex, you look so cute!” Lafayette exclaims. Hercules hesitates getting back onto his raft for a moment, John stops laughing. Adrienne rolls her eyes, smirking, taking her sunglasses out of her hair and putting them on.  
  
Alex blushes, “Thanks,” he mutters. He doesn’t understand what they’re talking about. He looks like a bag shoved into other bags, had made sure of that before he left his house. Maybe Lafayette was just saying that? Alex doesn’t know.  
  
The embarrassment doesn’t stop there. Why would it?  
  
Alex sits down on one of the benches next to John, and Lafayette follows. Their legs are soaking wet, dripping on Alex once they get to the bench, sitting down on the other side of him close enough that they’re thigh to thigh.  
  
“Would you help me study tomorrow for our history final this Wednesday?” They ask. Their teeth dig into their bottom lip, eyebrows raised.  
  
“Sure, I mean, what do you need help with?”  
  
“I get it right up until after the American Revolution. After that it’s just kind of bores me,” they explain, shrugging. Alex cannot _believe_ .  
  
“Are you kidding? That’s when it gets good! The drama! The pettiness! The fact that it didn’t collapse immediately is what makes history so cool!”  
  
“You really like this, don’t you?”  
  
“Yes!” Alex says, grinning. Lafayette smiles back, soft and kind, something behind their eyes that Alex can’t place.  
  
Angelica forces everyone to get out of the pool so that they can eat, setting the food down on the round plastic table everyone is sitting at. She sits down next to Dolley and passes plates around, waiting for everyone to join them.  
  
John’s friend, who Alex now knows is Martha, slides over to another bench where Maria and Peggy are. Alex is going to ask why, but then Hercules sits down on the other side of Lafayette and Alex gets too distracted by him to remember what he wanted to say.  
  
“You know you could sit with one of us, right?” Peggy asks, “We’re all pretty small people, you could have squeezed in.”  
  
“We’re fine,” Lafayette tells her. Adrienne snorts next to them before flinching and hitting Lafayette on the arm.  
  
They all eat quickly, most of them eager to get back in the pool. Alex’s heart is still racing. He’s still afraid of it, afraid of the water and how still it is, of how quickly that changes into waves crashing, flooding, destroying everything in its path.  
  
Nine months. It’s only been nine months.  
  
“Hey, are you okay?” Hercules asks him. The table is now empty with the exception of the two of them. Alex’s hands grasp at anything he can reach, his clothes, the table, Hercules' arm. He's hyperventilating, tears welling in his eyes. Goosebumps cover his skin but he’s soaked with sweat.  
  
“How, how long was I out?”  
  
“Only a few seconds, why?” Hercules is getting closer to Alex now, but he doesn’t touch him.  
  
“Nothing, I, I’m sorry,” Alex mumbles, letting go of the table.  
  
“Do you want to go in the pool?”  
  
“No, I’m fine, thanks.” Alex smiles to try and forget what just happened, Hercules just looks more concerned.  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“Yeah. Besides, you’re all incredibly muscled and I don’t want to embarrass myself.”  
  
“You wouldn’t embarrass yourself! You’re adorable!”  
  
Alex laughs and shakes his head before saying, “I will stab you.”  
  
“Well, okay then.”  
  
“Isn’t that your boyfriend?” Adrienne asks Lafayette as they stand in the middle of the Schuylers’ pool. Lafayette exhales through their teeth.  
  
“We’ve been over this. I’ve known him for ten days, he is _not_ my boyfriend.”  
  
“But you like him.”  
  
“Yes, very much actually. I’ve started to consider him my future husband, but he’s still not my boyfriend.”  
  
Adrienne laughs but it's not in a mean way. Lafayette watches her, how her smile widens and her shoulders shake. It’s something they see happen on a regular basis, something that shouldn’t hurt but it does.  
  
Lafayette loves Adrienne like a sister, but it wasn’t always that way.  
  
There used to be a time when Lafayette thought she was the sun. They didn’t understand how someone so beautiful could exist. She was bright and kind and loving beyond compare. She handled everything softly, including Lafayette, and she’d been easy to fall in love with.  
  
Adrienne didn’t love them back, and they understood that. They continued being friends and Lafayette healed their broken heart with the love they still got from her, but it left bruises that don’t heal overnight.  
  
Lafayette hasn’t told Hercules or John about their feelings for them for a reason. They’re scared of the way the two of them react, scared of that rejection. Even if Lafayette was one hundred percent sure that their feelings were reciprocated, that fear would still sit on their chest and prevent them from ever doing anything about it.  
  
“You should ask him out,” Adrienne tells them.  
  
“You know I can’t,” Lafayette responds. Adrienne glances over to them and sighs, knows what’s going through their head. She can read their mind, they swear.  
  
“I still think you should,” she says.  
  
Around five minutes later, Eliza and Theo get out of the pool and sneak off. They whisper to each other and laugh before disappearing underneath the deck.  
  
“You okay?” Lafayette questions. Adrienne swallows and nods, but Lafayette knows she isn’t being honest. They can read her just as well as she can read them, and they practically see her heart breaking.  
  
The pool becomes less appealing after a while, everyone starting to filter out of it slowly.  
  
“So, Adrienne, what’s going on with Jefferson and Madison?” John asks as he runs a towel through his hair. Adrienne jumps up, slapping the tabletop frantically.  
  
“Oh! James and Thomas are in love with Burr,” she explains, beaming.  
  
“What?” Everyone yells at once. Adrienne jumps.  
  
“Yeah! James tries to flirt with him but he’s shit at it and Burr’s oblivious, so on his breaks he comes into the Dippin’ Dots cart, calls Thomas, and cries about it.”  
  
They all laugh, even Alex who has only ever met Thomas. It lasts for a while before John is knocked off of the table bench by something being thrown at him. He screeches, grasping at the rubber remnants of the balloon that left a red mark on his sternum and soaked him with water all over again.  
  
“Water balloon fight!” Theodosia screams, throwing another balloon at Hercules.  
  
They all leap over the bench at once. Hercules pulls John up from the ground and drags him, Lafayette, and Alex underneath the deck away from the fight.  
  
“Okay, we have limited time before they find us. What’s the plan?” Hercules asks, looking over to Alex when he starts stuttering. The look in his eyes is something akin to the way he looks at John. Lafayette wants to ask him about it but they don’t have the time, so instead they help the three of them create the best plan to take down everyone else with the most amount of temporary damage.  
  
The battle is reaching its peak by the time they start moving, and they’re determined to get it there. They grab as many balloons as they can, taking down every single one of their friends until they’re victorious and everyone has surrendered.  
  
Alex is giggling as Eliza throws baby water balloons at him that won’t bust. He’s soaking wet from head to toe and his shirt clings to him, outlining the soft curves of his body that Lafayette wants to run their hands down. Their heart beats faster, their breathing coming quicker as they picture it.  
  
They are not ready for tomorrow.  
  
Later when they’re all dried off, Lafayette is squeezed in between Hercules and John on the Schuylers’ couch. Alex sits on the far end, just out of reach of all three of them. He doesn’t seem bothered by the three of them, but he doesn’t look comfortable with them either.  
  
“Do you want to come cuddle with us?” Lafayette asks. Alex jumps and turns to them, shaking his head. He whispers something to himself and folds his hands, curling further into himself.  
  
“Okay, but if you do just know that I don’t plan to move for about four years,” Lafayette tells him, pulling John closer to them. Alex blushes but stays upright on the couch, making no move to join them. Lafayette probably scared him away. Shit.  
  
“Where is everyone else?” Hercules asks, referring to the fact that they’re alone in the room.  
  
“Well, my Martha is with Peggy and Maria and they said they were going to get changed but that was twenty minutes ago, so,” John responds. He shrugs, snakes his hand up to rub over the red mark on his chest from where Eliza hit him with the water balloon.  
  
“Eliza, Adrienne, and Theo are probably in Eliza’s room giggling about something and Angelica is probably with Dolley and Martha W. passed the fuck out,” Lafayette guesses. Hercules nods, half asleep himself, and rests his head on Lafayette’s shoulder. They try not to get to excited over it, because John and Hercules are right here and can probably feel their pulse.  
  
They fall asleep in between them like that, and when they wake up it’s later that night. Everyone else is in the room now, quietly debating over what movie to watch, trying not to wake up people who are not asleep.  
  
Lafayette looks to the far end of the couch, only to find Alex gone.  
  
They can’t help but feel as if they’ve done something. If they have, then they’re _really_ not ready for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what the fuck is going on but why not run with it??


	5. Study Date

Lafayette spent most of last night wide awake, sweating, wondering if they’d done something to make Alex upset. It took a conversation with Adrienne, who was half asleep at the time and just muttered responses in French, and three glasses of water to finally get them to sleep, and even then when they woke up that fear was the first thing on their mind.  
  
They finished their first two finals, but they’re so tired they can’t remember how well they think they did on them. They’d fallen asleep during the twenty minute study period in between the two tests, earning a concerned look from John and a knowing look from Adrienne. They grumbled something about nightmares and John understood, but the way Adrienne rolled her eyes with a smirk on her face resonates with them. 

As Lafayette watches Alex walk down the hallway with someone, a sinking feeling settles in their chest. Maybe he forgot, maybe he didn’t. Lafayette isn’t sure which possibility they’re more afraid of.   
  
They walk outside to their car after saying goodbye to John, throwing their bag in the backseat and standing outside of it to wait for Alex. They try to ignore how sweaty their hands are, how fast their heart is racing, how hard it is to breathe. Alex probably isn’t coming, they really should be going home right now to study for this history final alone.   
  
Adrienne walks up to them with Eliza and Theodosia behind her and says, “Hey, Alex told me to tell you to wait for him, he’s just talking to a teacher right now about his Spanish grade. He didn’t stand you up, Mar.”  
  
“Didn’t we have a discussion when we first came here that we would stop calling each other by our first names, or any nickname derived from them?” Lafayette asks, squinting. They hate being called Marie, Adrienne knows that; she’s the exact same way, about the exact same name.   
  
“Sorry, sometimes I forget. I’m still getting used to it,” she tells them.   
  
“It’s been six years.”  
  
“Moving on. We’re going to Eliza’s to study for bio, I won’t be home until late.” She wiggles her eyebrows and winks. Behind her, Eliza and Theo do the same, shimmying their shoulders in unison.   
  
“That’s a nice sentiment, _cher_ , but I need to study for their history test or I’m going to die.”  
  
Adrienne rolls her eyes, “You’re going to do fine, just remember to take a break at some point today.”  
  
“Yeah, whatever,” they respond. They can take breaks when they're dead. Adrienne scoffs and follows Eliza to her car, a cute mint green punch buggy that Lafayette cried over the first time they saw it.   
  
Alex comes over a few minutes later, backpack straps on both shoulders, hair swaying as he walks. He’s smiling when Lafayette spots him, starts walking faster to their car. Lafayette’s heart beat picks up, but it’s not an unpleasant feeling.   
  
“Hi! I haven’t seen you at all today, isn’t that weird?” Alex asks.   
  
Lafayette grins, “It is. Maybe next year we’ll have more classes together.”  
  
As they drive out of the parking lot, Alex starts fiddling with the dials of the radio, muttering to himself as flips in between stations. It takes him fifteen minutes to give up and settle for one that’s half classical music and half static, humming along to what he can make out.   
  
“Do you want to go get breakfast or something?” Lafayette questions.   
  
“Don’t we have to study?”   
  
“I mean, yes, but it’s only eleven o’clock and I’m starving.”   
  
“Okay? I think I have money somewhere in here,” Alex tells them, reaching into his bookbag and rummaging around. He pulls out a bundle of crumpled dollar bills, separating them and trying to set them flat.   
  
Lafayette pulls into the lot next to a small diner on the side of the highway. Alex is still trying to flatten his money when he gets out of the car and follows Lafayette inside, getting increasingly frustrated with how the money crinkles back into place once he lets it go.   
  
“You know I can pay for you, right?” Lafayette asks as they sit down in a booth with sparkly 1950’s themed cushions.   
  
“I can’t let you do that. Besides, I should have enough,” Alex mutters, running the bills along the edge of the table.  
  
Their conversation flows easily, like two people who have known each other for years instead of just days. Alex is bright and sweet and amazingly outspoken. He isn’t afraid to argue with Lafayette on things, not that he should be, and he doesn’t hold back when it comes to explaining why. He can speak French, which doesn’t help Lafayette’s ever-growing crush, and he admits to already knowing Spanish despite being in the class.   
  
Lafayette doesn’t know when their legs started touching under the table, but they’re in no position to move. They try to act like they haven’t noticed, hopes that Alex didn’t register the tensing of their leg and relaxes again. Alex pauses for a second when they do, but continues telling Lafayette his plan on how he’s going to get them to ace this history final come hell or high water. Lafayette listens as well as they can, but their mind keeps wandering to the feeling of Alex's leg on theirs.   
  
It isn't until after their food comes that Alex notices the tabletop jukebox. His eyes widen and he sets his fork down, pulling a quarter from his pocket and putting it in the slot. Lafayette watches him flip through the pages of songs while they eat their scrambled eggs, and their heart feels like it's being squeezed when they see the adorable look on his face.   
  
God, they’re so fucked.   
  
He choses an upbeat song that he likes the title of, bouncing slightly in his seat to the rhythm of the music while he starts eating. He laughs when he sees Lafayette staring but doesn’t stop doing it, which Lafayette loves.   
  
As they leave, Lafayette can’t help but wish that this was a date. Of course it wasn’t, because they’ve only known each other for eleven days and that’s too soon, but it would’ve been nice. Alex bumps into Lafayette as they walk back to the car and it shakes them both out of their thoughts and into a new frenzy of panic at the fact that one accidental touch is enough to make them feel as though they’re on fire.   
  
Lafayette drives them to Adrienne’s house, where they live, and parks in the garage. They lead Alex inside, throwing down their bag on the floor in the living room and collapsing next to it.  
  
“You’re house is _huge_ ,” Alex comments, glancing around.   
  
“Thanks,” Lafayette mumbles, eyes focusing and unfocusing on the ceiling light above them.  
  
Alex sets his bag down next to Lafayette, sitting down on the floor with them. He pulls out his history book, binder, and a stack of flashcards that’s almost too big to fit in his hands tied together with a fraying rubber band. Lafayette sits up to stare at it, eyebrows raised.   
  
“Are you gonna make me study all of those?” They question.   
  
“Only the ones you don’t know,” he responds, leafing through them. Lafayette sighs, flopping back down. Alex splits the cards into four smaller stacks, all of which are still thicker than Lafayette would prefer, and picks up the first one.   
  
“Let’s get started,” Alex says, smiling. Lafayette’s heart flips, they really wish it didn’t, and they nod at him, sitting up crossed legged on the floor.  
  
Lafayette gets most of the first two stacks of questions right, and then Alex starts asking them about the major political issues in 1789 and they don’t understand anything. Alex doesn’t get mad or annoyed, which Lafayette expects he would, just inches over across the carpet next to them and starts to explain it, his head almost completely on their shoulder.   
  
It starts to make sense gradually, after Lafayette gets used to the feeling of Alex being so close and they learn to regulate their breathing.   
  
Alex is explaining something about a war when Lafayette realizes that they’re not listening. They’re watching his lips move, but they don’t hear a word he’s saying, completely focused on what they’re not supposed to be. It’d be so easy to just lean in and-  
  
“Hey, are you okay?” Alex asks, looking at Lafayette now instead of the textbook in front of them. Lafayette doesn’t respond, a deer caught in the headlights. Their eyes dart from Alex’s eyes to his lips and back again. They don’t know what to do with their hands. Alex doesn't move away.   
  
“Lafayette,” he breathes, almost leaning in, not quite there yet.  
  
“Yeah?” Alex is still leaning in and Lafayette starts to close the distance, but Alex stops them.   
  
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” he says. His face becomes a beautiful shade of red, reaching down below the collar of his shirt and up to the tips of his ears.   
  
Lafayette can’t breathe, lungs burning, throat constricted. Their heart is racing like a revving engine trying to burst out of their chest but it just won't take off. This is just like Adrienne, they knew that this would happen. Why did they do that? Why did they have to fuck everything up?  
  
“Hey, hey,” Alex whispers, taking their face in his hands. He’s kneeling in front of them now, eyebrows furrowed, panting. They’re crying now, Alex has tears in his eyes.  
  
“I’m sorry, fuck, I’m _so_ sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, I’ve only known you for like ten days and that’s so weird, I get it. You probably don’t even want to kiss me, I should’ve asked, and I’m so fucking sorry, Alex, _shit_.” They start panicking again, trying to twist out of Alex’s grip, but he won’t let them. He kneels upright in front of them to make himself taller, giving him the leverage to make them face him.  
  
“Hey, listen, it’s not that I don’t like you. I’ve only known you for a little while and I want to get to know you better before anything else happens, okay?" he asks.    
  
“I’m so sorry that I tried to kiss you,” Lafayette says, sniffling.   
  
“It’s not like I wasn’t leaning in too. You’re fine, Lafayette, you didn’t do anything wrong,” he assures. Lafayette’s heart all but stops when Alex leans down and kisses them on the forehead.   
  
“I’m still sorry,” Lafayette tells Alex as he sits back down next to them.  
  
“It’s okay. We don’t have to go back to studying right now if you don’t want to.”  
  
Lafayette wipes their tears and laughs, “Are you kidding? I’m in no position to fail my history final, let’s go.”   
  
Alex grins and flips the page in his textbook and starts explaining the War of 1812 to them again, and the subject of them almost kissing doesn’t come up again.  
  
The next day Lafayette knows almost every question on their history final, even gets the bonus question right. Alex walks out of the room with them once they're dismissed, comparing answers and beaming when they match up.  
  
Lafayette still wants to kiss him.  
  
Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cried while writing this haha


	6. State Shoot - Day One

Their junior year ended right after finals, just as the weather started to warm up. Lafayette said this was a sign that this was going to be the best summer they’ve ever had, but Hercules didn’t exactly believe them. He was excited for the warm weather and the parties and getting to be with his friends. He was excited for his job and getting to sleep past six o’clock in the morning and for the sunlight to last so long that days seemed endless. He wanted that, he's been waiting for that.   
  
However, Lafayette and Alex have something going on between them, and it looks like whatever it is will happen whether Hercules wants it to or not.    
  
Hercules got a text from Lafayette the day finals were over, an all caps message detailing what happened in nondescript terms that left Hercules with a lot of questions, but also a lot of answers.   
  
Hercules remembers when Lafayette first came to his school in the sixth grade. They were taller than him then, with chubby cheeks but slim everything else. Their accent was thicker, sometimes they would sing French songs to themselves quietly while they did their work. Hercules was still figuring things out in terms of who he liked and what he was supposed to do about it, and meeting Lafayette allowed him to realize some things.    
  
Then they all grew up and Hercules got taller with broad shoulders and a handsome face but the gap in between his two front teeth never went away, he’s almost  _ too  _ tall, and his voice never got as deep as it probably could have.    
  
Lafayette though, they got it all. Their face slimmed out to high, perfectly sculpted cheekbones, a wider smile that made Hercules fall apart every time he saw it, a smile that still does. Muscles formed and they got taller, came into their own skin and grew comfortable with themselves. Their high pitched voice smoothed out and became an accented drawl, curling up and down and around their words, deep and sweet and enough to make Hercules swoon when he heard it.    
  
Hercules remembers falling in love with Lafayette when they still were kids, he remembers still being in love with them when they started growing up, and he knows now that it doesn’t matter how long he’s loved them, because he never said anything, and now they’re falling in love with someone else.    
  
Maybe it isn’t love yet. They’ve only known each other for three weeks, but feelings happen quicker than that. At least, Hercules’ did.    
  
Hercules doesn’t hate Alex. Alex is beautiful bordering on stunning, dark eyes with an almost pained look behind them, darker hair falling like curtains down to his shoulders, framing the soft structure of his face. Dark circles under his eyes make him look tired when he smiles, but that doesn’t make him any less appealing. He’s small and delicate but likes to act like he isn’t, tries to make himself bigger as if it will make his ideas hit harder than they already do.    
  
Shit.   
  
“You okay, Hercules?” John asks from the backseat. Hercules jumps and nods, but John isn’t put at ease by this.    
  
John is a whole different story, for a different time.    
  
“Are you actually falling asleep on the day we get to go back to the gun club?” Lafayette asks. Their hair is pulled back into a bun, tank top cut low on the sides almost down to the bottom hem. Hercules stares for a moment, drinking in the image of them before looking away, embarrassed of what he’s doing.    
  
“It’s the first time I’ve gotten up before noon since summer started, don’t bully me,” Hercules grumbles, sitting further upright in his seat.    
  
They’re on their way to the state shoot, the most well known of the summer. People from all around the country come to shoot at it, even some from around the world. Last year Hercules got cursed out by a man who only spoke fluent Italian, and despite it going on for the duration of four minutes, it’s one of Hercules’ favorite experiences at the gun club in his four years of working here.    
  
Lafayette turns into the gun club, practically leaping out of the car to get their bag and run to the pavilion, leaving John and Hercules to trail behind.    
  
“You think they’re gonna start dating?” John asks as he watches Lafayette sit down next to Alex at the table. The story Lafayette told them sounded awkward and messy, so why Lafayette is so excited to see him is beyond Hercules.    
  
“Maybe,” Hercules responds, shrugging. John just sighs and walks over to the table, sitting down and smiling at them.    
  
They Schuyler sisters arrive shortly after they do, sitting down at the table. Angelica is the only one who looks even remotely awake, and even her head is struggling to stay upright.    
  
“Jefferson, what are you wearing?” Peggy asks. Her forehead is resting on the table so that her eyes are looking down at the ground, focused on Jefferson’s bright gold shoes.    
  
“Oh, they’re new. My mom got them for me,” he answers, glancing down at them. Eliza opens her eyes to turn to him, eyebrows furrowed.    
  
“If you can afford shoes like that, why do you work here?” She asks. Hercules wants to point out that she’s rich too, but he stays silent to hear Jefferson’s answer.    
  
“My dad doesn’t like the fact that I’m dating James, so I just use my paycheck to buy him stuff,” he explains. Eliza stifles a smile, but it shines through anyway.    
  
Maria shows up on her bike a moment later, locking it to the rack and walking over to them. Hercules swears he can hear Peggy’s heart stop.    
  
She must’ve taken the warmer weather prediction to heart, because Maria shows up in a crop top and shorts. She’s wearing dark red lipstick, large circular sunglasses over her eyes. As she gets closer to the table, she blows a bubble with the gum she’s chewing and pops it, sitting down next to Peggy, who is now bright red and very awake.    
  
“Are you okay?” Alex whispers to her, biting his lips so he doesn’t laugh.    
  
“I’m going to die here,” she responds harshly, making Alex snort. Lafayette gasps at that, breaks out into that smile, the fond look they reserve for John now being directed at Alex, which makes Hercules’ insides twist in a cruel way.    
  
“You okay, Peggy?” Maria asks, blowing another bubble, slower this time than before. Angelica laughs this time, and Peggy whips around to face her.    
  
“Sorry," Angelica mouths, but she’s still laughing as she does.    
  
Martha comes out and gives her speech before she calls out the bank assignments. Lafayette and Thomas are on the same bank with Eliza, Angelica, Maria, and Elizabeth Sanders. John is put on another bank with someone named James, and Alex and Peggy are put on practice. Hercules leaves them to go get his golf cart keys and when he comes back to get his bag, they’re all gone.   
  
“Did you see her, Alex? She was wearing a fucking  _ crop top _ . Oh my god, I’m so gay, I can’t do this,” Peggy whisper-screamed furiously. She was still as red as a tomato and getting redder, but it wasn’t a main concern of Alex’s at the moment.    
  
“Just ask her out! She definitely likes you,” Alex tells her, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder.    
  
“She definitely doesn’t, are you kidding?”   
  
“She does, just go for it!”   
  
Peggy smirks. “Like you went for Laf?”    
  
Alex stops in his tracks, blush creeping up to his ears. “That’s not the same thing.”   
  
“Sure it is! You like them, you don’t know if they like you back, you’re very gay, and they’re gorgeous.”   
  
“First of all, I’m bi. Second of all, I’ve known them for three weeks and you’ve known her for five years, so it is  _ completely  _ different.”   
  
“Yeah, whatever. We’re past my embarrassing crush, let’s talk about yours. When are you gonna tell Lafayette you like them?”   
  
Alex squints at her before asking, “Who ever said I liked them?”   
  
“You did, several times, at our sleepover last week,” Peggy reminds him, delighted at the squawk she gets in response.    
  
“I never said that.”   
  
“You did! You said that they were pretty and you would love to date them but you weren’t comfortable with the fact that you’ve only known them for a few weeks!”   
  
“What I say when I’m running on two hours of sleep should never be taken to heart,” Alex mutters, kicking rocks with his feet.     
  
“It’s okay to like them. Just ask them out.”   
  
“No, I can’t. As much as I would like to, I don’t want to become part of the weird love triangle thing they have with John and Hercules,” Alex explains.    
  
“What?” Peggy questions.    
  
“You know, how Lafayette likes me, and John, and Hercules? Then how Hercules likes Lafayette and, maybe, John? Then John, who doesn’t really show it, but is totally in love with Lafayette and Hercules? None of them have ever said anything about it, but it’s really obvious, to me at least,” Alex explains, “I don’t want to interfere with that.”   
  
“Then why don’t you just date all of them?”   
  
“Oh.”   
  
He never even thought of that.    
  
Hours later the day is almost over. A trap boy got overheated and had to go home, and the Washingtons chose Alex to take his place for the rest of the day, instructing Hercules to go get him. He speeds down the road to practice, sighing when Lee is already glaring at him when he pulls up. He doesn’t even say anything, just taps his foot and waits for Hercules’ excuse.    
  
“I’m here to pick up Alex,” Hercules tells him. Lee shifts his weight from one foot to the other and puts his hand on his hip.    
  
“Why do you need him?”    
  
“Reynolds got sick and had to go home and we need someone else on the line.”    
  
“Fine, take him, see if I care!” Lee says, storms off muttering to himself. He yells something in Alex’s direction that makes him jump and Alex turns to look at Hercules before standing up off the bench and walking over to him.    
  
The drive is silent, and Hercules wishes that it wasn’t. He understands that this is half his fault, that all he has to do is bring something up for them to talk about but all that’s going through his mind is Alex and Lafayette on the floor of Lafayette’s living room, kissing like Hercules knows they didn’t. Lafayette, who Hercules has imagined kissing and being kissed by for as long as he’s known them, slipping out of his grasp just because he wasn’t smart enough to admit that he loved them.   
  
God, he's an _idiot_.   
  
“I know you know what happened between me and Lafayette,” Alex says. Hercules almost slams on the breaks before he realizes what he’s doing.    
  
“Yeah, I know.”   
  
“So you know nothing  _ actually  _ happened, right?”   
  
“You wanted something to happen, though.”   
  
“Of course I did, and the feeling was mutual if I remember correctly.”   
  
Hercules doesn’t hate Alex, but the smug way he speaks about Lafayette liking him is something that sets him on the path to hatred.    
  
“So that’s what that was to you? Some game?”   
  
“No,  _ no _ . I’m not that kind of person, I’ve seen too much of those people in my life to become one of them,” Alex explains. Hercules would ask, but the way Alex’s eyes glaze over slightly when he says it makes him decide against it.    
  
“Why don’t you go for it, then? You like Lafayette, obviously they like you, so why wouldn’t you just date them?”   
  
“I would, but I don’t want to fuck with the love triangle you three have going on.”   
  
“I’m sorry,  _ what? _ ”    
  
“You know, how you all like each other but you won’t admit it?”   
  
“I do not like Lafayette and John,” Hercules lies. “Besides, Lafayette dated my brother, why would I want to date them? That’s kind of weird isn’t it?”   
  
Hercules found out about Lafayette and Hugh when he came home one day two years ago and found Lafayette being pinned to a wall by Hugh while they practically devoured each other. Lafayette blushed and apologized while Hugh just blushed, and Hercules stood in front of one of the loves of his life and his brother and laughed as if he hadn’t just been crushed before going up to his room and sobbing into his pillow as quietly as he could so they wouldn’t hear him.   
  
Yes, dating Lafayette would be weird, but it doesn't stop Hercules from wanting to.    
  
“Maybe, or maybe you liked them before that and you were jealous of them.”   
  
Hercules doesn’t know when Alex took the time to figure out his entire life, but he imagines a bulletin board and pushpins with multicolored yarn was involved.    
  
“I wasn’t jealous of them,” Hercules tries to claim, but he knows Alex doesn't believe him.    
  
“Why did they break up?”    
  
Hercules stops this time, right in front of where he’s supposed to get off. John is looking over at them now, waving, that cute grin on his face that makes Hercules melt breaking out across his face.    
  
“I don’t know,” Hercules whispers. Alex leans towards Hercules to whisper in his ear, which isn’t necessary because nobody is close enough to hear them, but it sends shivers down his spine anyway.    
  
“Exactly.”   
  
Hercules is about to ask what he means by that, but before he can Alex grabs his bag and walks away. Hercules would be lying if he said he didn’t stare at him the whole time.    
  
Fuck.    


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha this isn't even good but fUck it let's gO


	7. Paradise Park

Paradise Park was a century old amusement park situated in between a forest and acres of empty fields. It’s the biggest park in their area, open every day in the summer, and you don’t have to pay to get in. There’s rollercoasters and a ferris wheel, a ride where you sit in a cart and go around in circles listening to music being played over speakers while brightly colored flashing lights dance around rapidly.    
  
It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, meaning most of the park is closed, allowing Theodosia and Aaron to sit in front of the best french fry place in the park and go on their full break. Usually someone comes up and pulls them away before it’s over, or they’re so crowded that they don’t get to go on it at all.    
  
Theo is sitting on the bench eating french fries while Aaron sits across from her, occasionally taking sips from his water bottle while he stares at the people that walk past them.    
  
“How are things going with Adrienne?” Aaron asks. Theo inhales sharply, swallows the french fry she’s eating almost whole.   
  
“You can’t just ask things like that!” She yells, grabbing a napkin from the holder on the table and hastily wiping at her mouth despite there being nothing on it.   
  
Theo doesn’t like talking about her crush on Adrienne and Eliza, despite the fact that she is almost always thinking about it. The first time she mentioned it she screamed and locked herself in the park’s bathroom for an hour. It was a secret she couldn’t tell most people, with Adrienne being virtually omniscient and Eliza being part of the most well-known family in a town where gossip travels fast. Burr was the only person that knew about it, and even he didn’t speak about it often.    
  
“I was just wondering. You told me about how you were crying over Eliza at the pool party on Memorial Day while you were blowing up water balloons, but you didn’t really say anything about Adrienne.”   
  
“She spent most of the day with Lafayette,” she says, staring down at her french fries.    
  
“Oh?”   
  
“She doesn’t like them, I know that, but she doesn’t like me either. I think she likes Eliza, and I mean, who wouldn’t? Eliza is the sweetest, most amazing person on the planet, and that’s why I like her, but she likes Adrienne. So, basically, I’m dead.”   
  
“Why don’t you just tell them that you like them, then?”   
  
Theodosia’s eyes widen. Is he kidding?   
  
“Are you kidding?” She asks. “Adrienne is basically a goddess who is  _ way  _ out of my league and Eliza is too good to ever like me.”    
  
Burr rolls his eyes, “That’s a bit over dramatic, don’t you think?” Theodosia is going to kill him.    
  
“No, I don’t! Besides, it’s not like I’m the only one at this table who isn’t going after the people I like.”   
  
Burr startles, crossing his arms over his chest. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”   
  
Theo gasps, slamming her hands down on the table and yelling, “You can’t be cagey with me, I’ve known you forever! You like Thomas and James and you won’t tell them because it would require you actually admitting something for once!” Someone runs past their table but Theodosia is too focused on this to pay any attention to them.  
  
“That might be true, but it’s their relationship I’d be joining, so they need to make the first move.”   
  
“I don’t agree, but I see what you mean,” Theodosia says. Aaron shrugs and steals a french fry out of her basket.    
  
“Burr is fucking talking about us!” Madison yells to Jefferson on facetime in the backseat of Adrienne’s Dippin’ Dots cart. Adrienne jumps as she tries to scoop the dots into a cup, glaring at him to keep his voice down. James gives her the best apologetic look he can manage while under this much stress.   
  
“ _ What? _ ” Jefferson screams over the phone, his voice crackling.    
  
“Yeah, he was talking about how how he likes us but won’t make a move until we do,” he explains, flinches when he hears Thomas screaming at the top of his lungs on the other line. The phone is snatched out of his hands and Lafayette is left staring at him.    
  
“Listen this is great and I truly am happy for you, but I would like to keep my hearing and my job so if you could not discuss this right now, that’d be great,” they say. Thomas yells for his phone back and Lafayette flips the camera to show them holding him back with their foot. Thomas’ hands are scrambling and flailing for the phone but he can’t seem to move past their leg.    
  
James is still watching this happen when someone knocks on the door to the cart. Adrienne turns to open in, grinning when Theodosia stands in front of her.    
  
“I have something to tell you,” she says. She’s picking at a loose thread on her blue uniform polo, trying not to look at Adrienne. Adrienne nods and steps out of the cart, closing the door behind her just as James screams, “Burr loves us, Thomas, we’ve been idiots this whole time!” as loud as he can.    
  
“Ignore him, please,” Adrienne mutters.    
  
“How does he know that?” Theo asks, suddenly distracted.    
  
“I think he overheard it? By the time he got to the cart he was already calling Thomas and I really didn’t have the time to ask for details.    
  
“Oh, because me and Aaron were talking about our crushes and he wasn’t supposed to hear any of it, but I guess he did anyway,” Theodosia said, trying to hear James through the metal cart wall.    
  
“Crushes?” Adrienne questions, face heating up.   
  
“Yeah, that’s what I have to tell you.”   
  
“Are you kidding me? Oh my god we have to ask him out immediately!” Thomas tells James. Adrienne doesn’t know when he got the phone back from Lafayette, but she isn’t sure she wants to.    
  
“I can do it now!” James suggests.    
  
“No, we both have to be there. We need to plan something.”    
  
Adrienne slams her hand against the wall, hearing James quietly apologize.   
  
“Can you please tell me what you have to tell me before they start yelling again? Not that I don’t like talking to you, it’s just that I would rather you get out a full sentence before being interrupted by their nonsense,” Adrienne says.   
  
“Oh, yeah, sure. The thing is, I really like you and Eliza, and I have for a really long time now, so I was wondering if you liked me too? It’s fine if you don’t, I get it, but I just needed to say it because I’ve been thinking about it every day for the past two years and I think I just might die if I don’t tell you,” Theodosia tells her, heart beating out of her chest.   
  
Adrienne smiles, “Oh, well, I like you and Eliza too. I have forever now, I just didn’t think you would like me back.”   
  
“Seriously? You’re like a literal goddess!”   
  
“Shut up!” Adrienne squeaks, face bright red. Theodosia’s jaw drops.    
  
Adrienne has never been embarrassed around Theo since they met in the sixth grade. She’s been happy and sad and stressed in a million different scenarios, but the day Adrienne de Noailles is ever flustered is the day Theodosia knows that this is serious.    
  
They don’t stand there for long. Adrienne needs to get back inside her abandoned cart before someone notices that she isn’t in it and Theo’s break is ending soon. They make a plan to drive to the gun club after work and pick up Eliza so that they can talk things out. Theodosia’s phone alarm rings, telling her that she has to get back to work.    
  
“I have to go,” Theo mutters, turning the alarm off.    
  
“So do I, actually. I think James has taken over my stand,” Adrienne responds as she watches a teenage girl walk away with a cup of Dippin’ Dots she didn’t hand out.    
  
“Bye!” Theodosia says, kissing Adrienne on the cheek on impulse. Adrienne turns bright red again, and her heart flips over backwards. She walks off before anything else happens, spotting Burr still at their table. She runs over to him, slamming her hands down on the table.    
  
“Your move, fucker.”   
  
Theodosia and Adrienne sit in the parking lot of the gun club for two hours before they spot Angelica’s car coming to clock out. Adrienne sees her first, jumps out of the car as soon as they drive close enough to see them.   
  
“What are you doing here?” Angelica questions as she walks over to them.    
  
“We need to talk to Eliza,” Adrienne explains. Angelica catches on immediately, eyes widening.    
  
“You have a crush on my sister?” she whispers, even though Eliza and Peggy have already gone in the office to clock out. Both Adrienne and Theo nod, trying to bite back smiles.    
  
By the time Eliza and Peggy come back out, the three of them have an even more detailed plan that the one they previously had, and Angelica is almost in tears at the fact that two people love her sister almost as much as she does.    
  
“Why are you two here?” Eliza asks, beaming at them. Theo goes weak at the knees, feels her heart race.    
  
“Come with us,” Adrienne instructs. Eliza furrows her eyebrows, glances back at Angelica who just urges her on, and agrees.    
  
They drive for an hour before coming to an empty field and parking in it. Eliza is still confused, and it doesn’t help that as soon as they stop, Theo and Adrienne climb into the backseat with her.   
  
“Are you going to kill me? Like, is that what’s going on right now?” She asks.    
  
“No, we were here to ask you out,” Adrienne admits. Eliza stops.    
  
“Really?” They both nod, looking at each other from opposite sides of the car.    
  
Eliza doesn’t say anything for a long time. A small smile graces her face, tears welling up in her eyes.    
  
“Are you okay?”    
  
Eliza wipes her tears away. “I’ve loved you both for so long! I didn’t think you noticed!”   
  
The three of them spend over an hour in the backseat of the car talking and crying. It’s dark outside by the time Adrienne crawls back into the driver’s seat to take them home, Eliza and Theo refusing to move from the back.   
  
“You told her!” Angelica exclaims when they walk into Eliza’s house holding hands.    
  
“We did!” Adrienne says, grinning, bouncing on her feet.    
  
Angelica, Peggy, Martha Wayles, and Dolley are all standing in the kitchen waiting for them. Theo guesses that they all know what they’re talking about, judging by how they’re staring at them as if they’re about to announce that they just got eloped. She catches Dolley and Martha glancing at each other occasionally, but she’s too focused on the fact that she now has two girlfriends to mention it.   
  
Dolley and Martha follow Angelica into her room when everyone else goes to bed. None of them bother turning on the lights, collapsing next to one another on Angelica’s bed and lying down. Dolley rolls onto her back and stares up at the canopy on the four poster bed.    
  
“It’s pretty cool that they got together,” she remarks, looking over at Angelica next to her.    
  
“Yeah,” Angelica responds.    
  
Angelica knew that this was going to happen when Eliza, Adrienne, and Theo got together. There was no way that they wouldn’t think of the fact that they all like each other, and the fact that they all know about it. The conversation never came up, never wanted to be brought up, because while their feelings were certain, what they would do after that wasn’t.   
  
They didn’t have anything figured out. Angelica still cares about her sisters above all else, Dolley still goes out at night and does who knows what with people she doesn’t know, and Martha would never admit that she likes them in the first place.    
  
Knowing this, both Dolley and Angelica are surprised when Martha sits up and says, “We really need to talk.”   
  
“I don’t want to do this right now,” Dolley says. She’s crying, Angelica doesn’t know why.   
  
“We have to eventually,” Martha whispers.   
  
“I can’t.”   
  
Angelica sits up now. “Dolley…”   
  
“I can’t do this right now!” She yells. She gets up off the bed and tries to leave, but martha grabs her by the wrist before she can.    
  
“Please, Dolley,” Martha pleads.    
  
“I’m sorry.” More tears slip down her cheeks as she tries to escape from Martha’s grip.    
  
“What are you so afraid of?” Martha asks, standing up.    
  
“This! I’m afraid of this! Of you and Angelica and how this is going to turn out I don’t want to see the end result,” she cries.    
  
“We’re not going to hurt you.”   
  
“It’s not me I’m worried about.”   
  
“You really don’t feel the same way we do, do you?”   
  
“I didn’t say that!”   
  
“You might as well have! Do you think we’re not good enough for you or something?”   
  
“No!”   
  
“Then why are you making this so difficult?” Martha yells.    
  
“What the hell, Martha?” Angelica asks.    
  
“Wow,” Dolley chokes. She rushes out of the room before either of them can stop her, slamming the door shut.    
  
“Martha, are y-”   
  
“I’m fine!” She yells. “I’m just gonna go home,” she mutters, stumbling towards the door and leaving despite Angelica telling her that she doesn't have to.    
  
Angelica huffs and lays back down in her bed, completely alone.    


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is so bad I might cry lmao lmao lmao


	8. State Shoot - Day Seven

It’s six o’clock in the morning at the gun club, seven days into the state shoot, and it shows. Half of the kids are face down on the table, arms wrapped around their head to block out the sun, groaning. Alex is leaning on John’s shoulder almost asleep, mouth hanging open. John doesn’t seem to mind it, just looks at Alex like he looks at Hercules, and Lafayette never wants to stop looking at this image.    
  
Angelica and Peggy come over to the table, Peggy carrying the cooler, Angelica swinging her arms back and forth, spine hunched over. Angelica told Eliza about the fight, and Eliza had accidentally told Adrienne who told Lafayette and then swore them to secrecy. Lafayette felt bad for her, couldn’t imagine what it would be like if they got into a fight with John, Hercules, or Alex.    
  
Martha shows up after them, her first day working since the fight. Angelica follows her with her eyes as she sits down on the other side of John, then refuses to look at her again. The tension between them lays across the table like a thick, suffocating blanket. It feels like they can’t even breathe without it landing like a punch to the chest.    
  
The Washingtons come out and Martha gives her speech, apologizing to everyone for the early starting hours. She hands out the bank assignments louder than usual to wake everyone up. Lafayette listens to each name, confusion growing when Martha goes through the banks and doesn’t call them.   
  
“Peggy, Alex, and Lafayette, you’re on practice,” she yells, slight smirk on her face, before going on to other people. Everyone under the pavilion looks at each other, knowing that Lafayette hasn’t been on practice since their first year. Alex’s eyes widen, blush high on his cheeks. He looks over to George and shakes his head, blush becoming deeper a moment later.    
  
“How did you swing this?” Peggy whispers to Alex as they walk down to practice, probably louder than she thought she did.   
  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he responds, sweating.    
  
Lafayette is so caught up in staring at him that they don’t notice the grass stopping and the pavement beginning. They trip, falling to the ground and scraping their knees on the rocks scattered on the ground. Shit.    
  
“Are you okay?” Alex asks, grabbing Lafayette’s hands and picking them up off of the ground.    
  
“I’m fine, Alex,” Lafayette assures him as they stand. Alex doesn’t listen, his eyes darting around to every inch of Lafayette’s exposed skin, checking for any bleeding or injuries of any kind. Glad that he finds nothing, he sighs.    
  
“You scared me!” Alex yells, a smile on his face, hand over his heart. The look he gives Lafayette makes them feel like liquid is pouring down their throat, filling their lungs, but it’s not unpleasant. It’s overwhelming, how it floods their system and drowns them, but they bathe in it, revel in that.    
  
“Sorry,” they mumble, scratching at the back of their neck. They shouldn’t be thinking about falling in love with Alex, it’s only been two weeks since he said he needed time to get to know them better, and they’re not about to force him into something, wouldn’t do that to him.    
  
“It’s fine, as long as you’re okay,” he says. He looks so cute. Fuck.   
  
“You look a little flustered,” Peggy mutters to them once they continue walking. Lafayette scoffs.    
  
“I’m dying, Peggy.”    
  
They get to practice and manage to escape with minimal taunting from Lee, who sneers about how they must be pretty bad at their job to get sent down here. Lafayette hates him, kissed John on the cheek six times last year for breaking his nose, they counted.    
  
Alex spends the day talking to Lafayette, the whole world falling away until it was just the two of them. Talking to Alex was engaging, sucking them in and holding them there. Lafayette could talk to Alex for an eternity, but they still had a job.    
  
“The target shooter is empty,” Peggy says when she walks over, hands on her hips.    
  
“What?” Alex asks.    
  
“The thing that shoots the targets, it’s  _ empty _ ,” she repeats. Five shooters all glare back at them, guns in hand, completely terrifying.   
  
“I’ll go fill it,” Alex tells Peggy and walks over with her, jogging to the trap so he can refill it and crawling inside. He puts a small orange cone on top of the cement box.    
  
He’s in there for fifteen minutes before Peggy looks back at Lafayette, gesturing to the trap. They nod and walk over, refusing to look over at the shooters.    
  
“Are you okay?” Lafayette calls into the trap, heart swelling when Alex walks to the front of the trap and looks at them, face red, hair coming out of his bun.    
  
“Honestly, I’m a little stressed! The trap won’t shoot!” He explains, rushing around and trying to fix it.    
  
“Alex, dear?”    
  
“What?”   
  
Lafayette grins and flips the switch that powers the machine. “You forgot to turn it on.”   
  
Alex blushes, eyes widening when Lafayette takes the cone down and climbs inside the trap with him. They’re standing three inches apart, the trap not giving them much room to move anywhere else.    
  
“Two people don’t really fit in here,” Alex remarks.    
  
“That’s because two people aren’t supposed to.”   
  
“Will we get in trouble for this?”   
  
They smile. “Maybe from Lee, but he’s not gonna tell Adams and he’s  _ definitely  _ not gonna tell the Washingtons.”   
  
Alex chuckles, and Lafayette really shouldn’t want to make out with him as much as they do. They start leaning in, but they’ve done this before. They stop, trying and forget that look in Alex’s eyes that makes them want to do more than just kiss him.    
  
“I know you like Hercules and John,” he blurts out. Lafayette’s heart drops.    
  
It’s true, of course it is, but nobody is supposed to know. They don’t ever talk about it, doesn’t waste time entertaining the fantasy of something that will never become real, but it’s there. It’s there under everything Lafayette piles on top of it to conceal it, but their act wears thin, they wear thin, and it shows like an open wound, hurts just as much.   
  
They don’t hate loving Hercules and John, but they hate how obvious it is, hate how much they want to be in a relationship with them despite knowing that they’re reaching for stars they’ll never get to.    
  
“And I only bring it up because Peggy brought up the point of us all possibly dating, and that’s something I kind of want to do,” he mumbles, but Lafayette hears them anyway.    
  
Lafayette wants to kiss him so fucking badly.    
  
“Are you sure they’ll go for it?”   
  
“No, but they love you so I’m hoping they’ll reject me softly.”   
  
“Reject you? I’ll be surprised if they don’t propose to you on the spot.”   
  
Alex laughs nervously just as Peggy comes over, leaning down and telling them that the shooters were done and that they could come out now. Impeccable timing, truly.    
  
They’re in Lafayette’s car when the day is over, waiting for Hercules and John. Alex is sitting in the front seat, silent, mulling over plans on how to tell John and Hercules the news.    
  
Hercules opens the front door of the car and sees him there, jumps up at the surprise. “Oh!” he exclaims before slamming the door closed and climbing in the back. John joins him, equally as shocked to see Hercules there.    
  
They leave the gun club and drive to Lafayette’s house, both John and Hercules’ confusion increasing when they park in their driveway.    
  
“We’ll explain inside,” Lafayette tells them. Alex tries to hide his smile, but it doesn’t work. John and Hercules both look at him strangely, but they follow Lafayette into the house anyway.    
  
Eliza, Adrienne, and Theo are in the living room cuddling, not having moved from when Lafayette left for work this morning. They’re happy for Adrienne, but they’re even happier that they’re about to chase their own relationship. Adrienne glances at the four of them, furrows her eyebrows, but doesn’t say anything as they pass her and walk up to Lafayette’s room.    
  
“Wait are we telling them now?” Alex asks.    
  
“Of course!”   
  
“We can’t just ask them out we have to plan this!”   
  
“I mean, I know we should but-”   
  
Hercules interrupts them, “What about asking us out?” Lafayette and Alex stop, eyes wide.   
  
“Wanna date?” Lafayette squeaks, slaps their hand over their mouth.   
  
“ _ What? _ ”    
  
Lafayette sighs, soul despaired, doesn’t answer. Alex explains, “Well, Lafayette has liked you for…?”   
  
“Forever, I’ve liked them forever.”   
  
“Right, so they’ve liked you for a while, and I’ve only known you for a short amount of time but I like you too, and we were kind of hoping that we could all date? W're not dating, by the way,-" he gestures between him and Lafayette- "that’s not what’s going on right now.”   
  
“Okay,” John says from where he’s sitting on Lafayette’s bed.    
  
“Really?” Lafayette says loudly. They’re close to tears, face flushed, heart racing so fast that it feels like they’re two seconds away from death.    
  
“I mean, yeah. I liked you and Hercules from the very beginning, and I’ve pretty much liked Alex since I saw him and he called me and angel.”   
  
“Oh my god you like us,” Lafayette sobs, tears falling down their cheeks.    
  
“But I don’t want to just start dating,” John tells them all. “I want to talk about it first, and then figure out how we’re going to do this. We can probably make out before that though.”    
  
“You just want to make out with us,” Hercules says, a smile playing on his lips.    
  
“Yeah, basically.”    
  
They talk about their relationship before they get to make out, discuss how they’re going to make it work and how they’re aware that it’s rushed because they’ve only known Alex for a little less than a month. They decide to take things slowly, to consider themselves together but not do anything until they have it all worked out. John pouts at that and Lafayette kisses him softly, which shuts him up for a good five minutes, so flustered that he can’t form coherent sentences.    
  
Lafayette falls asleep in between Hercules and Alex, the gun club and unadulterated panic exhausting them, and they wake up at two in the morning sweating. Hercules’ arms are wrapped around them but they manage to escape, grinning softly as Hercules pulls Alex across the bed, which makes Alex pull John. There’s no way that they’re getting back into that bed without waking one of them up, but they’ll burn that bridge when they get to it.    
  
Adrienne is in the kitchen when they get down there, drinking a glass of water and eating crackers. She hums when they reach her, handing them a cracker and going to get them a glass. They used to do this all the time when they were younger and neither could sleep, but it feels right to do it now.    
  
“Why’d you drag Alex, Hercules, and John up to your room when you got home?” She wiggles her eyebrows at him.    
  
“We’re working out a relationship right now,” they explain.    
  
“What?”   
  
“We all admitted that we like each other and now we’re working on what we’re going to do.”   
  
“So, you’re dating?”   
  
“Not necessarily. We’re talking about how we  _ want  _ to date and figuring out parts of that. Then once we’re done with that, I presume we’re going to date.”   
  
Adrienne rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Y’all are ridiculous.”   
  
“Did you just say ‘y’all’?”   
  
“ _ Anyway _ , I’m happy for you, and I hope the four of you fall in love with each other.”   
  
“We already have, it’s how we plan to stay in love that requires the work.”   
  
“And are you ready to work for it?”   
  
Lafayette smiles. “I think I have been for a while now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha I'm dying


	9. State Shoot - Day Nine: Final

Angelica sits across from Alex at their picnic table under the pavilion, dreading the rest of the day already. She was here before Lafayette, Hercules, and John for once, which surprised her. Eliza told her about how they all confessed their feelings for one another, so she finds it odd that they aren’t racing to see him.   
  
Angelica is happy for them, honestly, but she can’t help but think about her own relationship. Her own nonexistent relationship.    
  
“Hey, are you okay?” Alex asks, setting his phone as down on the table as it goes of three times in a row. She can read Hercules and John’s contact names upside down, but her eyes start straining before she can read the messages.    
  
“I’m fine,” she lies, taking out her ponytail so that she can redo it.    
  
“Lafayette told me about the fight,” he tells her. Angelica wonders who told them, but Alex is speaking again.    
  
“If you want to talk to me about it ever, I’m here. And I know that you think I might not relate because of my relationship with Lafayette, Hercules, and John, but I did have a life before I started working here, before I met you guys.”    
  
“Thank you, but I’m fine just sulking for now,” she mutters. Alex nods and goes back to his phone, allowing Angelica to wipe her newly formed tears as he’s distracted with replying to his texts.    
  
Alex was the first person outside of Eliza and Peggy to try and comfort her instead of just looking at her like they wanted to. She wonders what Alex meant when he said he had a life before this, that whatever happened then could help him relate now, but their conversation is over and it’s too late to ask.    
  
Hercules drops a paper bag in front of Alex as he sits down next to him, John and Lafayette still getting their stuff out of the car. Alex looks at him before peering inside the bag, equally confused and delighted when he finds food in it.    
  
“You got me breakfast?”    
  
“Yep,” Hercules responds, pulling his styrofoam plate of pancakes out from his own bag. John and Lafayette come over to the table, kissing Alex’s forehead as they pass him and sitting on either side of Angelica. Alex blushes, covering his face and shaking his head. Angelica wants to look away almost as much as she wants to have that with Dolley and Martha.    
  
“You didn’t have to get me breakfast, or do that,” Alex says, voice muffled behind his hands.    
  
“You’re our boyfriend now, we want to do nice things for you,” John responds, looking at Alex with a disgusting amount of fondness. It’s the way he looks at Lafayette and Hercules, but without the glint of hopeless yearning that used to be there before all of this happened.    
  
Martha shows up after Thomas does, the tense atmosphere that has been settling over them and sticking for the past few days returning. She feels uneasy, only calming down when John and Lafayette tense on either side of her. She understands this, knows what they mean even though they don’t say it. They have her back, and even if she doesn’t trust herself right now, she can trust them.    
  
The bank assignments come early enough, Angelica’s heart both rising and falling when she’s assigned to a bank with Martha, but also Alex and John. Lafayette and Thomas are three banks down, meaning that Lafayette probably won’t be able to see any of their boyfriends at all until they have to leave, which they pout about openly. Thomas doesn’t even seem to hear the bank assignment or Lafayette, too caught up in staring at his phone, face pale.    
  
“What’s wrong with you?” Lafayette questions, trying to look at Thomas’ phone. Thomas shuts it off before they can, only making Lafayette more interested.    
  
“Is this about Burr? Adrienne tells me that Theodosia says he’s very fond of both of you, all you have to do is tell him and you’re i-”   
  
“If you must know,” he interrupts, “we’re planning to ask him out tonight, we’re just getting all the details worked out.”   
  
“You should just tell him. Sometimes spontaneous confessions are the way to go,” Lafayette advises, glancing over to their boyfriends, who smile back at him, cheeks red. Angelica rolls her eyes.    
  
“Alex, John, if you need a ride up, I’ll drive you,” she says, standing up and getting her bags. Alex and John nod and get up to follow her, leaving Martha to find her own way.    
  
“That’s petty,” Martha sneers. All of them stop at once, waiting for Angelica to respond.    
  
“I’m petty? How about arguing with the girl that we’re both in love with and then, instead of fixing it, being immature and ignoring her and then getting mad at me when I didn’t even do anything. This is your fight, not mine.” Angelica walks away from her, from that fight. Alex and John scramble to follow her, climbing in the backseat together and buckling their seat belt.    
  
“You okay?” John asks.    
  
Angelica starts the car, “I’m fine.”   
  
It’s one of the shortest work days Angelica has ever had, already done with the second event by one o’clock. She’s sitting in the bench box waiting for the third event, trying to ignore Martha sitting less than two feet away from her. Alex and John sit on the other side, lying down as they squeeze next to each other on the wooden bench. They whisper under their breaths, shy smiles on their faces, not paying attention to anyone outside of their own conversation, completely wrapped up in each other. Fuck.    
  
“I miss you,” Martha says suddenly. Angelica freezes, Alex and John’s whispering becomes faster.    
  
“That’s nice.”   
  
“I’m sorry for what I said.”   
  
“I’m not the one who needs to hear that apology. After all, you didn’t say anything to me, you haven’t been saying anything to me for almost a week now.”   
  
“I’ve tried to apologize to Dolley! I’ve tried to call her but she never answers and I text her but she doesn’t read them.”   
  
“Can you blame her? She wasn’t ready to date us so you screamed at her and made her run away from us. Then you left me alone to wonder how I was going to fix this despite not being the person who should.”   
  
“I know, it was an asshole thing to do, and I’m  _ sorry _ , but I need your help.” Angelica scoffs, but Martha continues speaking anyway. “She won’t listen to me! I need you to talk to her so she’ll talk to me so I can apologize.”    
  
Angelica sighs. “Fine.”   
  
She calls Dolley, not surprised that when she answers it sounds like she just woke up.    
  
“Angelica!” she greets, voice sleep muddled.    
  
“Hi, Dolley. Are you okay?”    
  
“Still kind of fucked up from the whole Martha thing, but I’m fine as far as fine goes .” Angelica glares at Martha, who stares down at the ground. John and Alex are up now, on the other side of Angelica, listening in.    
  
“Yeah, speaking of Martha,” she trails off.    
  
“You’re at the gun club with her aren’t you? I usually know your work schedules but I haven’t checked it recently because of, you know.”   
  
“I get it. Has she talked to you at all recently?”   
  
“Yeah, she keeps calling and texting me but when she texts me she just says ‘hey’ like she’s trying to forget what happened, which I can’t! I can’t forget what happened.”   
  
Angelica muted her microphone. “Why would you do that? When you said you texted her I thought you meant that you already apologized!”   
  
“I didn’t want to just start out with paragraphs!”   
  
“Hello?” Dolley calls. Angelica goes back to the call.    
  
“Martha says she’s really sorry and wants to apologize in person so can you hear her out? For me, please?”    
  
Dolley sighs on the phone, the wonderful sigh that means she’s giving in. “Angelica Schuyler, you are so lucky that I’m whipped.”   
  
“Yes!” Angelica yells, squealing when Dolley hangs up the call.    
  
The third event ends at three, allowing Martha and Angelica to rush over to Dolley’s before it gets too late. They run up her driveway to her front door, pounding on it so that she’ll hear it from her bedroom, ringing the doorbell a few times for good measure. She answers half dressed, only managing to put on a fluffy bathrobe before she ran downstairs, tied loosely around her.    
  
“Hi,” she pants, lungs heaving.    
  
Martha speaks first, blurts out, “I'm  _ so _ sorry I tried to push you to talk about your feelings with us. You're entitled to your own secrets and I’m sorry I didn’t respect that,” before Dolley can even speak.    
  
“I’m sorry I was too much of a wimp to admit my feelings to you,” Dolley says back, tears already in her eyes.    
  
Angelica interrupts them, “You have feelings?”   
  
Dolley bites back a smile and nods.   
  
“I think we have a lot to talk about,” Martha tells them.   
  
“My room?” Dolley suggests. Angelica and Martha nod, smiling from ear to ear, agreeing.    
  
And so they go.    


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated it!! after abandoning it for a week!! hope you liked it!!


	10. Grand Shoot - Day Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!WARNING!!!! there is non-consensual touching in this so just in case!!
> 
> stay safe!!

June had passed by quickly, the first month of their summer coming to a close. With so much happening during the state shoot, it ending allowed everyone to spend more time with one another, both as a collective group and in their own relationships.    
  
Angelica, Dolley, and Martha are happy. After Dolley and Martha had apologized to each other and to Angelica for putting her in the middle of their fight, all three of them had the conversation that they’d wanted to have for years, and decided that they would be happier dating than not. The three of them spent most of the time after that together, almost inseparable, because they finally were together and they had to make up for years worth of lost time.    
  
Eliza, Adrienne, and Theodosia’s relationship is still just as strong as it was, but they’ve become more comfortable in it. They express their love for each other with actions rather than words. They drove hours away just to buy matching bracelets, went on picnics in the early afternoon and didn't come home until late at night with their picnic basket empty, paraded upstairs and fell asleep with one another. Angelica admires them, glad that her sister is in such a loving relationship with people who are as secure in it as she is.    
  
John, Hercules, Alex, and Lafayette practically all live with each other at Alex or Lafayette’s houses, always having sleepovers or going on dates that end up in sleepovers. Angelica isn't sure if any of them have slept alone since they got together.   
  
She's seen them a lot since the state shoot, but it's never just one of them. There was never a moment when they were all apart, as if it pained them to be out of arm’s reach. It’s been two weeks since they confessed their feelings, but the way that they act and interact makes it seem like they’ve been married for years. It's disgusting in a kind of cute way.    
  
Peggy had gotten tired of watching everyone date each other while she was still crushing, so during their two hour drive up to the only good waterpark in their state, she blurted out a confession to Maria and asked her out all in one breath, to which Maria blushed and said accepted. Angelica teased her about it the whole day, took a picture of them asleep on each other shoulders when they were leaving after the park closed.    
  
The past two weeks had been the best of Angelica’s entire life, to the point where she almost didn’t want to go back to the gun club, but she endured it and got through the first day, and is now halfway through her second.    
  
She jumps as she’s shaken out of her thoughts, a gun going off from one of the shooters she’s scoring. She’s been scoring this entire time without thinking, which she should be more concerned about but she isn’t, because thinking about her signifs and how proud she is of her siblings and her friends was much better than this job.    
  
Don’t get her wrong, Angelica loves working at the gun club, but not all the time.   
  
The days where she just wants to sleep but instead has to drive half an hour to get there and spend five to twelve hours in the blazing sun or freezing cold with no in between aren’t her favorite. There’s also the entire basis of it, guns that Angelica isn’t fond of with shooters that are overly fond of Angelica. She’s experienced her fair share of people who think her wearing shorts are their open invitation to touch her, which she makes clear that it’s  _ not _ .    
  
Angelica manages to avoid the harassment at the gun club by being forward about her intolerance for it, something she’s never shied away from doing. However, her sisters aren’t as confident as she is, despite being incredible and independent on their own, they tend to let things that bother them sit there, and then deal with their own reactions later.    
  
A man on Peggy’s bank one down from Angelica’s is stroking her leg, and even though Peggy looks like she’s close to tears, the man won’t stop doing it. The four men he shot with glance uncomfortably between each other.    
  
Angelica lets her clipboard clatter to the ground, her pen rolling under her chair. She manages to turn the trap shooter off before she leaves, just in case, and storms over. Cool wind blows her hair back, but she can barely feel it over the anger burning inside of her. She wants to punch him, wants the structural integrity of his skull to be compromised for the rest of his life.    
  
“Angelica?” Peggy asks, throat closed up, choked.    
  
The man touching her leg doesn’t move, only pauses and says, “Excuse me, but I really don’t think you should be off your post.”   
  
“Excuse  _ me _ , but I don’t think you should be touching my sister.”    
  
He grabs Angelica’s wrist and leans in closer to her face. “Who do you think you are?”   
  
She doesn’t answer, instead uses her other hand to punch the man in the face as hard as she can, hears something crack. The man clutches his nose in his hand, blood dripping in between his fingers, eyes burning with rage as he glares at Angelica. The four men with him look over from the bench box, eyes wide, darting from Angelica to the man and back again.    
  
“You’re coming with me,” the man spits through his blood stained teeth, his lips covered in it.    
  
He chases down the first golf cart driver he sees, which happens to be Hercules, and demands that he take them down to Martha and George’s office so that Angelica can be fired.    
  
“What did you do?” Hercules whispers when she sits down next to him in the front of the golf cart, the human leech deciding to sit on the bench in the back.    
  
“He kept touching Peggy’s legs and then he grabbed me so I punched him.”   
  
“Good.”    
  
They drove down the road to the office, Hercules holding the door for Angelica but the man walking in front of her and getting to it first.    
  
“This girl,  just attacked me!” the man yells before Martha has the time to even ask what he was doing in her office. He doesn’t care about his nose anymore, instead letting it bleed freely, staining his shirt.    
  
“Sir, I’m going to need you to calm down and tell me exactly what happened before anything else happens,” she tells him.    
  
“I demand that she be fired immediately!” The man screams.    
  
Martha turns her chair towards Angelica. “What happened?”   
  
“He was touching Peggy’s legs and stuff and she was almost in tears, and then he grabbed me so I punched him and I know I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t think of anything else.”    
  
“I see,” Martha mutters and leans back, eyebrows furrowed.    
  
Moments pass by in silence while Martha tries to figure out what to do. Her nails tap rhythmically on the arm of her office chair, contemplating.    
  
“Angelica-”   
  
“I quit.”   
  
Hercules and Martha both gasp. “ _What?_ ” They both ask in unison. Angelica has tears in her eyes.    
  
“I know you’re torn on whether to fire me or to not, because punching shooters is absolutely unacceptable but so is touching sixteen year old girls, so I’m making the decision for you. Thank you for trusting me with all the responsibilities you’ve given me in the past years, but I have to stand up for my sister, and I have to stand up for myself. So, I quit. I’ll go up to the line to collect my things and leave. Goodbye, Martha.”    
  
Angelica steps out of the office, wiping tears from her eyes as she closes the door behind her. She can hear the man yelling something at her, but she doesn’t care about what he says. After all, if she doesn’t listen, what are they going to do? Fire her?   
  
“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” Hercules screams as he chases after her. Angelica laughs through her tears, knowing that she did the right thing. Hoping that she did the right thing.    
  
“Thanks, Herc.”   
  
“What are you gonna do now?”   
  
“Go home, call Dolley and tell her what happened, probably go over to her house for a while. I’ll be fine, Hercules, this was only a summer job. I didn’t even need it.”    
  
Hercules shrugs. “Yeah, but you love it here.”    
  
“I also love my sisters and I’m going to protect them no matter what.”    
  
“That’s fucking amazing.”    
  
“Thank you,” Angelica says.    
  
Angelica gets in her car and drives out of the parking lot, saying goodbye to one of the things that made her summers as memorable as they have been.    
  
The Down the Line gun club did not depend on Angelica, but she knows that it will never be the same now that she’s gone.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha I cried while writing this chapter please kill me 
> 
> also fuck these paragraph breaks I swear


	11. Grand Shoot - Day Three: Final

John is exhausted. They were all at the Schuylers’ until midnight the night before, then piled into Lafayette’s car with Alex and Hercules and went to Alex’s house to sleep, but ended up staying awake until two in the morning talking. John loves the three of them, but he’s also quite fond of sleep, so the fact that he only got five hours of it when he really needed more doesn’t exactly motivate him to go to work.   
  
He’s lying across the backseat of the car, legs on Alex’s lap, McDonald’s bag in his own. Alex is holding his phone in one hand leaning on John’s shin, which John loves more than he should. He wants to kiss him so badly. He would if he had the energy.   
  
“Wait, so what happened?” Lafayette asks, eyes darting over to Hercules before going back to the road.   
  
“Angelica quit,” Hercules mumbles. He’s almost asleep, as he usually is when they drive to work, coffee in his hand that he’s too tired to lift up to his mouth, forehead against the window.   
  
“I know, but how?”   
  
“Told you already.”   
  
“Yeah, but Alex was wearing shorts yesterday, and I really can’t concentrate when Alex wears shorts.”   
  
“You’re ridiculous,” Alex says, smile hidden behind his coffee cup. John laughs and digs his heel into Alex's thigh softly, making him smile wider.  
  
Hercules takes a sip of his coffee and sits up straight, his spine cracking. John winces and doesn’t comment on it but worries nonetheless.   
  
“Okay so basically this guy was touching Peggy-”   
  
“Gross.”   
  
“Right? So Angelica went over to stop him I guess? I didn’t get details, but apparently he grabbed her so Angelica punched him and then the guy forced me to drive Angelica down to Martha’s office so she could get fired but then Angelica quit.”   
  
Lafayette turns into the gun club. “What did she say?”   
  
“She said how she knows Martha doesn’t want to fire her but also how what she did wasn’t right, which I disagree with, and how she has to stand up for her sister and herself so she’s quitting. It was the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I’m still screaming about it.”   
  
“You’re so cute,” Alex says. Hercules stops to look back at him, tries to talk again but stutters and blushes. Alex grins from the backseat, Lafayette laughs, and John is just grateful he gets to watch all of this happen at once.   
  
As soon as they get out of the car, the shift in atmosphere is evident. Some people are already there, but they don’t speak to each other, just bite their nails and at their lips. John didn’t know if it was because these people knew Angelica or if they thought she got fired and they’re afraid of that happening to them.   
  
“This is wild,” Alex whispers, taking his bag from Hercules as he’s handed it and then taking Hercules’ hand and walking towards the pavilion, Lafayette and John following. Everyone is looking at them when they get there, watching as they sit down at the table and then turning away.   
  
They’re still eating breakfast at their picnic table when Eliza shows up with Peggy and Maria trailing behind her. They’re holding hands and blushing, Alex flashing her a proud smile and then turning back to his food. Eliza looks back at them and rolls her eyes, but there’s a grin playing at her lips as she does.   
  
“Hey,” she greets, setting down their cooler. Her voice against the silence is deafening, but nobody seems to notice that she’s speaking.   
  
“Hello,” Lafayette responds, mouth full of pancakes. John chuckles and nudges them for talking with their mouth open. He grimaces soon after when Lafayette eats the piece of pancake and kisses John on the cheek, making sure to smear syrup on his skin.   
  
“You’re all so gross,” Eliza remarks.   
  
“We know,” John tells her as he furiously tries to get the syrup off of his cheek.   
  
“How’s Angelica taking her quitting?” Alex questions, eating his egg mcmuffin.   
  
Eliza shrugs. “Pretty well, I guess. She’s not really that sad about it, but Dolley and Martha are taking her shopping today so that she can take her mind off of it.”   
  
“That’s nice.”   
  
“Maybe we should go shopping together,” Lafayette suggests to their signifs.   
  
“We don’t get paid enough for that, love,” Alex remarks.   
  
“That’s fine. I can just buy stuff for you then.”   
  
Alex snorts. “Absolutely not.”   
  
“Never.” Hercules shakes his head.   
  
“No.”   
  
“Wow, now I know who’s not getting any Christmas presents.””   
  
Hercules stops eating, sets down his fork. “You think we’ll still be together by Christmas?” The hopeful tinge in his voice killed John.   
  
“I plan on it,” Lafayette whispers.   
  
They sit there in silence staring at each other until Martha comes out, and even she senses the tension when she gets to the pavilion. In response to it, she gives no speech that morning. Instead she goes right to the bank assignments and walks back inside her office, letting George take care of it.   
  
It’s the last day of the shoot, and the time flies by. They’re done by one o’clock, Alex hitching a ride with Hercules on the golf cart, meeting up with Lafayette and John on their way to the office to check out.   
  
“We missed you,” John tells him as Lafayette goes to open the door.   
  
“You saw me four hours ago and we’ve been snapchatting all day.”   
  
“I know but a picture of you, no matter how cute it may be, isn’t you.”   
  
“You’re so embarrassing.”   
  
John kisses him softly behind his ear. “You know it.”   
  
Martha swivels around in her chair when they come in, beaming when she sees them.   
  
“I’m so happy you four are together now!” she exclaims, clasping her hands together over her heart.   
  
“How did you know?” Alex screams before clearing his throat and relaxing.   
  
“Well unless John was telling you a secret earlier and I completely saw wrong when he kissed you, I kind of guessed.”   
  
“You talk in your sleep, love,” Hercules whispers to him, loud enough that John and Lafayette can hear it, but quiet enough that Martha doesn’t.   
  
Alex turns bright red, all the way up to his ears. “Oh.”   
  
They drive to Lafayette’s house after Martha writes down the time, collapsing in their bed and falling asleep.   
  
Not much happened during the last shoot of the summer, but it was enough. It was enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS SO BAD AND I HAVENT UPDATED IN FOREVER IM SO SORRY NOBODY EVEN READS THIS BUT THATS FINE SORRY SORRY


	12. Weston Shoot - Day Three: Final

It’s September, and the feeling of summer thriving has long since gone away, turned cold as the leaves fell off the trees and rain started to fall into colder puddles. It is the last day of the last shoot of the year, and even though the gun club has done so much for them this year, they all have to admit that they’ll be glad that they won’t have to come back until next May.

Their year at the gun club is ending, and that it was time to say goodbye to their summer jobs, it was hardly the time to say goodbye to each other.

Alex, John, Lafayette, and Hercules are still as in love with each other as they were from the first day they got together, which simultaneously amuses and disgusts their friends. They never apologize for it, open in their affection for each other. The four of them have started talking about their futures, both individually and together. They’re always particular about including one another in their plans, none of them stopping to consider the fact that they’ve only been together for two months, each of them full committed to their relationship.

Peggy and Maria are together now, coming off of the phase where they turn bright red every time their hands brush against one another. They’re closer now than before, better friends because they became girlfriends. Peggy took Maria to the beach with her and her family and spent whole days with their chairs by the water, talking amongst themselves and giggling, then going home and sitting in the air conditioned beach house once they got the sand off of their skin.

Eliza, Adrienne, and Theodosia are still thriving. Theo and Adrienne both had work during the beach trip, reluctantly turning down Eliza’s offer. Eliza understood and she was upset, but she still let herself have fun. She went on skype with them for hours until the sun rose and it was time to leave for the beach, where she would put her beach chair down in the sand, slather on sunscreen, and promptly fall asleep. When they all got back Theo and Adrienne were waiting for her, went on a date the next night to make it up to her.

Angelica, Dolley, and Martha are the laziest trio of girlfriends there are, spending most of their time laying in Dolley’s bed making out. After the shoot in July, when Martha burst into Dolley’s room and screamed about how she didn’t have to work again until September, they spent a whole week in her house, ignoring everybody’s phone calls in favor of sleeping. Angelica loved that week, dreaded school starting again because it meant that it couldn’t happen again, only reassured by the fact that soon they would graduate and they could spend the rest of their lives sleeping next to each other.

Thomas and James started dating Burr, after meticulous planning that all went to waste after Burr ended up having to ask them out because they were too busy trying to stutter out the question. James almost cried and Thomas screamed but both said yes and that was enough. Things were going okay so far, learning how to make their relationship work and succeeding as far as they were concerned.

“I blame you for this,” Alex mumbles as he leans on John’s shoulder, eyes closed. His head moves as John laughs, making him groan because he just wants to sleep.

“How is it my fault?” John whispers. His hand is buried in Alex’s hair, wrist cramping at the odd angle but he doesn’t move.

“You were the one that kept kissing me until three in the morning, knowing we had work today at seven, and stole my sleep from me.” Lafayette and Hercules come over with John and Alex’s bags on their shoulders, plopping down on the table and sitting across from their boyfriends.

“Would you rather I not kiss you?” John asks.

Alex’s lips curl into a sleepy smile. “I didn’t say that.”

“Exactly,” John says, kissing his forehead.

Eliza, Peggy, and Maria arrive next, everyone else at neighboring tables still watching in silence as they pass, as they had the past two days, as if their staring will get Angelica to beg for her job back.

“It’s the last day!” Maria exclaims, smacking the table top rhythmically. Peggy shh’s her, kisses her cheek, and then leans her forehead on the table, arms coming around her head to block out the sun. Maria laughs, reaches over to run her hand through Peggy’s hair.

Martha shows up later, greeting all of them before grumbling about how much she doesn’t want to be here, about how Angelica and Dolley are at Dolley’s house and she’d much rather be there than here, which makes Eliza laugh.

“You know, Angelica was supposed to come home last night,” Eliza remarks. Martha sighs, shaking her head.

“Dolley found a bunch of spa treatments in her bathroom and forced us to try them with her.”

“To be fair your skin does look fantastic,” Lafayette tells her. Hercules nods, agreeing.

“Thanks,” Martha says, laughing.

Martha and George come out of their office to the pavilion, setting down their boxes and standing at the head of the table. Everyone is silent almost immediately as Martha clears her throat, clipboard gripped loose in her hands.

“It’s the last day of the year here, and I know everyone must be excited to just get it over with and go home because there are much better things to do on a Sunday morning, right? Like you just want to get here, get out, and get your paycheck in a week. And I do understand, I get it, so I do want to start as soon as possible. However, I do have something to say.”

“She’s been practicing this,” Alex tells John, nuzzling into his neck. Lafayette grins, takes a picture of it on their phone when John is focused on Martha and Alex closes his eyes again.

Martha continues, “Over the summer, I have watched you all grow and form friendships that will hopefully last you a lifetime. You all have become so much better people and some of you have aged years in a month, in a good way. Yes, I know I might not be making any sense right now, but you’ve all matured, and that’s really all I could ever ask for. Thank you so much for that.”

“I love you guys,” Lafayette whispers to Alex, Hercules, and John. It’s the first time any of them have said it, and Lafayette’s voice shakes as they do. They have tears in their eyes as they look up at their boyfriends, met with John and Hercules staring at them, Alex in tears.

“We love you too,” John answers, eyes shining. Alex nods, sobbing, burying his head in John’s arm to muffle it. John turns to hug him, running his fingers along Alex’s scalp as he cries into his shirt.

Hercules wrap his arm around Lafayette, pulling them closer to him and kissing their forehead. “You okay?”

“I mean it. I love you.”

“I know, I love you too. We love you, too.”

Martha finishes her speech with the same grace she always does, voice choked as she calls out the bank assignments. Alex and John are together on one bank, Lafayette being put one bank down with another kid from their school that they didn’t know. Alex and John tell Lafayette they love them when they drop them off, kissing them and getting out of the car, watching as they drive away, overwhelmed at the fact that someone as beautiful as Lafayette is loves them just as much as the two of them love Lafayette.

The last day at the gun club has a sense of abnormal finality. They know that it’s not the last year, that most of them have already asked to be put on the list for next year, that they’ve all planned to do this until they couldn’t anymore. They know that they still have more shoots to work in the years to come, but they know that no matter how many summers that they have left, none of them will ever be as amazing as this one. They all found people they love, people who love them back, people they plan to spend their futures with, and no summer could ever beat that.

The last day at the gun club is the same as any other. Some shooters are still terrible people, some aren’t, some still slip money into the hands of shooters when nobody's looking. Some shooters have bad scores, some good, some damn near perfect. It passes by in a blur, so many people and hours spent and by the end of the day there are still sore muscles and earaches from the earplugs that only seem to amplify the headaches from the still audible rhythm of gunshots. They still don’t have an official lunch break and the tan lines from their flip flops will be there for months, but they manage for nostalgia’s sake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the flip flop sun tan line struggle is real though I still have mine it's the Worst
> 
> speaking of the Worst,,,,,This Chapter,,,,,


	13. Labor Day Fire

The day after the last shoot ends, all ten of them come together in the Schuyler's backyard, bonfire raging in front of them. The sun set hours ago, cold autumn wind sweeping in between the layers of clothes they had on to protect them from this very thing. They sit on benches around the fire, talking and laughing, fighting over s'mores more than a few times.    
  
"We're so lucky that Alex came to the gun club," Lafayette whispers to John. John smiles, looks over to his other side to look at Alex, who is focused on the marshmallow he's roasting more than anything else. Hercules is focused on his own, holding the skewer with one hand while the other rests on Alex's thigh.    
  
"I know. We wouldn't be together without him," John agrees, wrapping his arms around the puffy sleeve of Lafayette's jacket and leaning on their shoulder. Lafayette kisses the top of his head.    
  
"We would've never gotten to know him."    
  
John stares at the fire for a long time, up at their friends laughing around them. "We would've never fallen in love with him," he adds.   
  
Lafayette opens their mouth to say something, but is interrupted by Alex screaming, his marshmallow that he spent so long carefully roasting now in flames. Hercules tries to help him, but he's laughing too hard. The most he can do is take the skewer from his hands and try to put it out, which he fails at.   
  
"Hercules!" Alex yells, tilting the marshmallow towards him and blowing on it, extinguishing the flame.   
  
In the kitchen, Angelica rummages through her cabinets, pulling things out and stacking them so she could easily put them back later.    
  
"What are you looking for?" Dolley asks, smiling amusedly at her girlfriend.    
  
"I can't find any of the extra graham crackers," Angelica tells them, pushing past boxes of pasta, still finding nothing, and sighs.    
  
"Does it matter?" Martha asks, getting up from the table and standing behind Angelica, wrapping her arms around her waist. Angelica sighs again, but leans back into Martha anyway.   
  
"This is a bonfire, s'mores are everything," she explains.   
  
Dolley laughs quietly under her breath, "Of course they are."   
  
Martha leans her head on Angelica. "Let's just say that we can't find them-"   
  
"I'm the only one looking," Angelica mutters.   
  
"Right. Let's say that  _ you  _ can't find them, and then everyone will go home and we can go to sleep," Martha finishes.    
  
"That's a good plan," Dolley says.    
  
"It isn't. Besides, I found them." Angelica reaches up to the top shelf and takes a box of graham crackers down, turning around in Martha's arms to kiss her. Martha smiles, pressed Angelica against the counter, both of them ignoring Dolley trying to get their attention for a moment. Martha puts her hands on Angelica's hips, fingertips brushing under the hem of her shirt. Angelica pulls away.   
  
"Later," she whispers, grinning before grabbing her jacket and taking the box of graham crackers with her outside.    
  
The bonfire rages distantly as Peggy sits next to Maria in the tree house her parents built for her and her sisters when they were children. It had been a long time since anyone had climbed up it, sat on the wooden floors painted pastel blue that have long since faded, chipped in the corners from the years that have passed. Peggy started dragging Maria up to it in July, right after they got together, if only to escape their sisters and their respective girlfriends from barging in.    
  
Someone near the bonfire screams, probably Alex, but they barely strain to look. Maria is half asleep on Peggy's lap, humming as Peggy runs her fingers through her hair.    
  
"They're gonna ask where we are," Maria mumbles, cheek squished on Peggy's thigh.    
  
"I won't care if you don't."   
  
"I don't."   
  
Peggy smiles and leans down to kiss Maria on the cheek, smiling. "Then neither do I."   
  
"Do you think we'll stay together after we graduate?" Eliza asks Theo and Adrienne, voice barely above a whisper. The s'more she just made has already gone cold, marshmallow stuck to her leather gloves. She stares down at it in the moment of silence, her heart speeding up.    
  
"Of course," Adrienne responds, accidentally spitting out graham crackers as she struggles to answer as fast as she can. Eliza smiles, but she it doesn't calm her down like she hoped it would.    
  
"It's just," Eliza whispers, "it's going to be difficult, and I know that we can do it, but I just worry, you know? I love you, but sometimes that doesn't matter."   
  
Theodosia stares at her, takes Eliza's hand even though there's still marshmallow stuck to her gloves.    
  
"We love you too, and even if it gets hard this year and after we graduate, we're still going to try to be with you, because we care about you, and that's not going to change."   
  
"She's right,  _ mon amour _ ," Adrienne tells her, taking her other hand. Eliza wants to cry, the two people she loves so much, and has loved for a long time, by her side, telling her that everything is going to be okay.    
  
They're going to be okay.   
  
The night ends early, or what could be considered early, everyone leaving to sleep before they have to go to school tomorrow.   
  
Angelica, Martha, and Dolley, all snuck away earlier, giving no explanation as to why. Hercules, Alex, John, and Lafayette had all walked out in one four person hand holding chain, Hercules leading as he was the only one not half asleep. Maria and Peggy weren't in the tree house when Eliza checked it, assuming that the two of them had gone to bed hours ago when nobody was paying attention.    
  
After she climbed down, she dragged Adrienne and Theo upstairs to her room so they could fall asleep together, hoping that when she woke up she'd finally get the feeling back in her hands.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha and it's over!! I'm so sorry you had to read this, please forgive me, haha okay bye
> 
> tumblr: lol-phan-af


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